There are a number of reasons why you haven’t claimed your $50-million Lotto Max jackpot — the biggest jackpot in B.C. history and sixth-largest ever in Canada — six months after the ticket was drawn.
Prudent. Foolish. Cautious. Forgetful. More spiritual than materialistic. Very, very patient.
It has been six months or 26 weeks or 185 days since the winning numbers 3, 4, 5, 7, 31, 33, 40 and the bonus 49, were drawn on March 17. A ticket with those numbers was sold at a Langley lottery outlet, but the B.C. Lottery Corp. won’t say exactly where until you claim the prize.
And you officially have a full year.
The $50-million jackpot awaiting you ties a previous payout in B.C. in 2010. It’s just a few million shy of Canada’s all-time biggest payout — a $54.3-million Lotto 6/49 prize paid out to a group of oil workers in Camrose, Alta., in 2005.
The March 14 jackpot grew to the enormous size because there had been no winning ticket for four previous draws. The promised $50-million payout triggered a ticket-buying frenzy, with transactions peaking at 3,500 $5 tickets per minute on the last day of sales, despite the 1-in-28,633,528th chance of winning.
Past big lottery winners have taken a few days to let their good fortune sink in, break the news to family, consult a lawyer, hire a financial planner, break open the bubbly.
But six months? Come on!
You’re losing hundreds of dollars a day in interest. In the six months since the draw, BCLC estimates you’ve lost $500,000, almost enough to buy a Vancouver condo.
Maybe you’re practising patience, which Dr. Alex Lickerman, author of Happiness in this World, says you can do by manipulating the subjective experience of time.
Strategies for seeming to speed time up when waiting might include distracting yourself: “Tear your mind away from your obsession.”
Or, he advised in a recent posting on psychologytoday.com, “Vividly imagine you’re already enjoying what you’re waiting for. Savour the waiting. Anticipating something good is sometimes even more enjoyable than actually having it happen.”
And it’s important if you want to achieve true happiness that you recognize your goal isn’t crucial for your happiness.
“No single goal, no matter how important it may be, no matter how badly we may want it, can ever create the entirety of our happiness,” said the wise doctor. And that “helps to calm the sense of urgency we feel about obtaining it.”
Who knows, you may already be there.
The three biggest recent unclaimed prizes, all on 6/49 tickets, were $113,807 in 2009, $104,534 in 2008 and $99,318 in 2006, according to BCLC spokesman Chris Fairclough.
Between 2002 and 2013, the lottery corporation paid out $3.5 billion in prizes and there was $75 million in unclaimed prizes, most for $10, he said.
This jackpot would be the biggest unclaimed prize, but Fairclough said it’s “not unheard of” for winners to wait months before claiming a prize.
Last year, a woman had won $25 million but didn’t know it until she returned from a month-long European vacation, he said.
Another winner several years ago, for reasons unknown tucked his incredibly valuable slip of paper in a safety deposit box for 48 weeks before showing up to collect his cheque.
“They have until March 14, 2015, to collect the prize,” said Fairclough.
Maybe that’s you.
Or maybe … You. Lost. The. Ticket.
