B.C.’s $50 million lottery mystery appears to have been solved.
A jackpot Lotto Max ticket that went unclaimed for nearly a full year has been turned in, the B.C. Lottery Corporation announced Monday.
“We can confirm that it is the genuine ticket and have validated it in our system,” BCLC said in a release.
“As is the case with all prize claims BCLC will now undertake the verification process to determine the rightful ticketholder.”
The corporation did not say how long it could take to confirm the winner.
The ticket was sold in Langley on March 14, 2014, and if it hadn’t been turned in by the weekend would have become a worthless piece of paper. A jackpot that size has never gone unclaimed in B.C., according to lottery officials.
Speculation has run rampant for months about who the winner could be, and why the player was apparently biding time.
The unclaimed ticket even spurred a lawsuit late last year from a Shoppers Drug Mart employee who alleged a coworker purchased it for a workplace pool and was hiding it. The claim hasn't been proven in court.
BCLC has promised to provide more information about the winner as soon as possible “given the unprecedented interest in this prize.”
