Small northern Ontario town gripped with lotto fever as $1M ticket set to expire

All eyes in the Co-op store in Larder Lake turn to the lottery counter when someone comes in and starts walking in that direction.

That's because they might be about to turn a slip of paper into $1 million.

"It is causing a stir," said René Richard, the store manager. 

"We're still waiting for the winner to walk in with their ticket."

It was at the Co-op in the small town of 745 people on June 7, 2022 that a lottery ticket was sold that is now worth $1 million, but only if it's turned in before June 7 this year.

"Well, every time you run into somebody in town they're talking about it," said Lisa Ploeger, a lifelong resident of the former gold mining town near the Quebec border and one of the founders of the Larder Lake Information Group on Facebook. 

"I've been checking everywhere. My husband's gone through his office and went through every drawer in his desk looking for more tickets and I've been looking through all of our old jackets and purses and we can't find anything."

Ontario Lottery and Gaming says 99 per cent of winning tickets are redeemed and they give out $2.6 billion in prizes every year.

But there are a few unclaimed jackpots out there this spring, including a $70 million winner sold in the Toronto area last year.

And Tony Bitonti, a spokesperson for the provincial lottery agency, says a lot of it has to do with the annual switch between winter and spring jackets. 

"Literally we always see it at the change of season time," he said.

"People put the ticket in their jackets. Those jackets go away to get a winter jacket or a spring jacket."

Bitonti says a few years ago a man in Sault Ste. Marie put on his spring jacket for the first time in months and found a lottery ticket worth $500,000 "literally a few days before" it was set to expire.