For draw games, you have one year from the draw date to claim a prize, in every province and territory. That covers Lotto Max, Lotto 6/49, Daily Grand and the regional draw games we've been able to check. The national rule is set by the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation (ILC), whose rules apply to all five lottery corporations: a claim must be made "prior to the expiry of one year commencing on the date of the draw or within the time limit otherwise specified on the ticket, whichever is the earliest." Scratch (instant) tickets work differently: each game has its own expiry date, printed on the ticket or published by the operator, not a fixed one-year window.
Every deadline below was read on October 17, 2026 from the operator's own page.
Claim deadlines by lottery operator
| Operator | Provinces and territories | Draw games | Scratch / instant tickets | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OLG | Ontario | Exactly one year from the draw date (terminal-printed tickets) | Until the expiry date printed on the back of the ticket | OLG Winners FAQ |
| Loto-Québec | Québec | One year from the draw date shown on the ticket | Set per game; see Loto-Québec's payout-deadlines table | Loto-Québec prize claims |
| BCLC | British Columbia | National games (Lotto Max, Lotto 6/49, Daily Grand): one year from the draw date, under the ILC rules | Not verified today; check BCLC's claim page | ILC rules |
| WCLC | Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut | One year from the draw date | Expiry date printed on the back of the ticket | WCLC FAQ |
| Atlantic Lottery | Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador | One year from the draw date, as indicated on the ticket | Expiry date printed on the reverse of the ticket | ALC claiming your prize |
When does the clock start?
For draw games, the draw date: not the day you bought the ticket. A ticket bought for a draw three weeks away doesn't start counting down until that draw happens.
The ILC rules add two details that matter at the edge:
- "Whichever is the earliest." If a ticket shows its own, shorter time limit, that limit applies.
- Weekends and holidays. "If the expiry date falls on a day that is not a business day, then the following business day shall be deemed to be the expiry date."
Ontario (OLG)
OLG's Winners FAQ: "Customers have exactly one year from the draw date to claim their prize for tickets printed from the lottery terminal." That covers Lotto Max, Lotto 6/49, Daily Grand, Ontario 49, Lottario and MegaDice tickets bought at a retailer. For INSTANT tickets, "prizes won on INSTANT games can be claimed until the expiry date printed on the back of the ticket."
What happens if nobody claims? OLG: "Prizes from national lottery games that go unclaimed are returned to prize funds for future bonus draws and promotions. Unclaimed prizes from Ontario-only games are returned to the province." Step-by-step claiming: How to claim a lottery prize in Ontario (OLG).
Québec (Loto-Québec)
Loto-Québec: "For draw-based lottery games, the prize claim deadline is one year from the draw date shown on the ticket." For scratch tickets, it publishes a payout-deadlines table listing a date for each instant game. The version we read was dated October 14, 2026. Games whose claim period has already ended are dropped from that table, because "the prizes can no longer be claimed." See How to claim a lottery prize from Loto-Québec.
British Columbia (BCLC)
BCLC's own claim-a-prize page refused automated access when we checked on October 17, 2026, so we couldn't re-read it today. What we could verify: BCLC is one of the five members bound by the ILC rules, so national games bought in B.C. (Lotto Max, Lotto 6/49, Daily Grand) carry the one-year-from-the-draw rule above. For BC/49 and B.C. scratch tickets, check BCLC's claim page directly. More: How to claim a lottery prize from BCLC.
Prairies and the North (WCLC)
WCLC sells in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Its FAQ is explicit: "DAILY GRAND, LOTTO MAX, LOTTO 6/49, WESTERN 649, WESTERN MAX, POKER LOTTO, EXTRA, KENO, PICK 2, PICK 3 and PICK 4 tickets expire one year from the draw date." "Scratch tickets have an expiry date printed on the back of the ticket." Sports bettors note: "SPORT SELECT ticket holders have one year from the date the last selected game was played to claim any prizes." Covers Western Max and Western 6/49. More: How to claim a lottery prize from WCLC.
Atlantic Canada (ALC)
Atlantic Lottery serves Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Its rule: "All Prizes must be claimed prior to the expiry date as indicated on the ticket." For draw games, the expiry is "one year from the draw date as indicated on the ticket." "Expiry dates for Scratch'N Win tickets are printed on the reverse of the ticket," and "ALC will not honour prizes for expired tickets." More: How to claim a lottery prize from Atlantic Lottery.
Why do scratch tickets have their own expiry dates?
Instant games aren't tied to a draw, so there's no draw date to count from. Each operator sets an expiry for each game instead, and it can be very different from one game to the next: Loto-Québec's October 14, 2026 table, for example, lists deadlines anywhere from December 2026 to June 2029. Always read the date on the back of your own ticket (or, in Québec, the operator's table), never assume a year.
How to avoid missing a deadline
- Check tickets soon after the draw. The one-year window starts at the draw, whether or not you've looked at the ticket.
- Keep the ticket safe. The ILC rules require the original winning ticket with a claim. If yours is lost or damaged, see lost or damaged lottery tickets in Canada.
- Note the draw date. One year from that date is your deadline for draw games.
- For scratch tickets, read the back. The expiry printed there is the one that counts.
Curious how much goes unclaimed? See unclaimed lottery jackpots and our unclaimed prizes page.