Background Unclaimed prizes – national draw games How long do lottery winners have to claim their prizes?  LOTTO MAX and LOTTO 6/49 winners have one year from the winning draw date to claim the prize How often do prizes go unclaimed?  Overall, about 1% of prizes on LOTTO 6/49 and LOTTO MAX expire unclaimed  The vast majority of these are very small prizes – i.e. free plays, $5, $10  It’s very rare that large prizes expire unclaimed What’s the largest prize to expire unclaimed in WCLC’s region?  A $14.9 million prize from the June 7, 2006 LOTTO 6/49 draw expired unclaimed  The ticket was sold in Alberta  The ticket was never presented for claim Where does the money from unclaimed prizes go?  Unclaimed prizes on LOTTO MAX and LOTTO 6/49 comprise the Unclaimed Prize Fund, which is returned to players through guaranteed Jackpots or promotional draws How much money is in the Unclaimed Prize Fund?  The actual amount in the Unclaimed Prize Fund can fluctuate significantly from month to month  Unclaimed LOTTO MAX and LOTTO 6/49 prizes accumulate, on average, at a rate of about a million dollars each month o This represents about 1% of the total value of prizes won o With about eight LOTTO 6/49 and four LOTTO MAX draws each month, the average total of prizes won on the two games is about $130 million per month  Expired unclaimed prizes are used as needed to support guaranteed jackpot amounts or to offer additional LOTTO MAX MAXMILLIONS prizes or LOTTO 6/49 Guaranteed Prize Draws Does WCLC know who the owner of a winning ticket is immediately after the draw?  In most cases, WCLC doesn’t know who purchased or holds a winning ticket until that person (or people, if the ticket is shared) presents it for claim  Lottery play at retail is anonymous  Lotteries are games, and part of the game play is checking tickets after the draw  Players receive a lottery ticket at the time of purchase and have the responsibility to check their tickets and present them to claim prizes 1 When does WCLC know who the owner is?  There are currently two methods of play that are not anonymous  WCLC’s subscription service o Subscribers purchase in advance to play for up to a year at a time. WCLC administers the account and pays prizes to the player as they occur  Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries’ PlayNow.com o Manitoba residents can purchase lottery tickets through an online account. Selections, and prizes won, are associated with the purchaser What information does WCLC provide about the selling location of a winning ticket?  When a major prize is won within WCLC’s region, we provide the following information on our website immediately following the draw: o the province or territory it was sold in (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Yukon) o or the major city (Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Yellowknife, Whitehorse) Can you provide more specific information on where the ticket was sold?  Until a ticket is presented, nobody in WCLC knows where the ticket was sold  The information exists in our computer system, but for security purposes, we do not run the data to uncover that information until the winning ticket is presented to us  Releasing the selling location would remove a valuable piece of information used in investigations and prize claim reviews  To verify a ticket, when one is presented for prize claim, a number of security measures are undertaken, including a comparison of the specific selling location identified by the claimant to data in the WCLC computer records What’s the usual amount of time that goes by before a major prize is claimed?  The circumstances of every claim and every player can vary widely  The majority of very large prizes – i.e. $1 million and up – are claimed within a few weeks of the win  But there’s also a minority of winners who take some time to claim their prizes  We’ve seen several instances of winners who choose to make a claim several months after the winning draw o Some of these wanted to take the time to consult financial planners before making their prize claim  We’ve seen several other instances where the winner didn’t check the winning ticket for several months o WCLC once saw a $4 million prize claimed only two days prior to expiry, when the winner discovered the winning ticket in a purse she hadn’t used in several months 2