Whoever stumbled upon the winning ticket has no rush to claim their prize, since they have 52 whole weeks to claim it.
It’s not the first time a prize-winner in B.C. has waited nearly an entire year before stepping forward and collecting their winnings – the Mayrhofer family, who won a $50 million Lotto Max prize back in 2015, waited 12 months before calling to collect.
The family had said that they had hoped to claim the winnings through a trust to keep their identities private, but lottery officials forbade them from doing so, for the sake of transparency.
What was the largest jackpot ever won in B.C? That would be $60 million on a Lotto Max ticket in July, by an 84-year-old retired fisherman named Joe Katalinic, who waited a month before stepping forward to claim his astonishing prize.
At the prize ceremony held at he B.C. Lottery Commission in August, Mr Katalinic had said that he had had a hectic few weeks following the win, so he had put the ticket in a safe-deposit box at the bank and continued as normal.
“There’s other things that I had more in my mind than the $60 million, you know?” he said.
Before Mr Katalinic broke the record with his quick-pick win, the previous record for B.C. was $50 million, which has been won on three occasions through the Lotto Max – on October 29th 2010, in Vancouver; on March 14th 2014, in Langley; and on April 8th 2016, in Kelowna.