'Milestone' OLG lottery jackpot to be drawn this week
A lucky lottery player in Canada will be the winner of a record-breaking multi-million dollar prize on Wednesday.
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) said its Lotto 6/49 prize will reach $68 million for the first time in history.
OLG spokesperson Tony Bitonti said this will be a “momentous milestone” for the crown agency.
“Since LOTTO 6/49 was enhanced in September 2022, the jackpot has never reached the top prize of $68 million. Only one ball remains for this Wednesday's draw – the Gold Ball – meaning the jackpot is guaranteed to be won and will create a new multi-millionaire!” Bitonti said in a release on Sunday.
“It has taken 15 weeks and 30 draws for the LOTTO 6/49 Gold Ball jackpot to reach its top limit of $68 million.”
The closest prize that has ever been won to this one was the $64 million ticket sold in New Brunswick in April, and years earlier, in 2015, a $64 million LOTTO 6/49 jackpot won by a Mississauga resident.
A clerk hands a customer their Lotto Max ticket at a gas station north of Newcastle, Ontario on Thursday Oct. 6, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Doug IvesMost recently, a $42 million ticket sold in Niagara Falls was won on June 14.
The anticipated draw comes just months after a $70 million Lotto Max ticket expired – the biggest unclaimed ticket in Canadian history.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories

Monster storm in North Atlantic stretches cloud from Atlantic Canada to Portugal
A large low-pressure system centred about 750 kilometres to the northeast of Newfoundland is causing clouds to stretch all the way to Portugal.
'Trudeau can end it all': Conservative carbon tax filibuster stretches into second day
With no signs either side is ready to retreat, the marathon voting session in the House of Commons has stretched into its second day, after MPs stayed up all night rejecting Conservative attempts to defeat government spending plans over the Liberals' refusal to scrap the carbon tax.
Shohei Ohtani watch kicks into higher gear in Toronto as Blue Jays fans track private plane
Shohei Ohtani watch in Toronto has kicked into another gear.
Canadian alleges discrimination, sues federal government in effort to get grandchildren out of Gaza
A Palestinian-Canadian is suing the federal government in an effort to get his four grandchildren out of Gaza. Mohammed Nofal, 74, is alleging Global Affairs Canada and immigration officials created a discriminatory policy that denied his family help in evacuating a war zone in the days following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
'We're inside the patient, looking directly at the tumour': Gaming experience aids surgery
An Ontario teen is among the first patients in the country to have a rare type of cancer surgically removed by doctors who trained using a virtual reality system that allows them to 'walk' inside a patient's body.
'Pseudoscience': Alberta's health minister under fire for naturopathic medicine meeting
Alberta's health minister is facing pushback after taking a meeting focused on naturopathic medicine's role in the province's primary care.
2 Ontario men charged after allegedly producing recruitment videos for listed terrorist entity
Two men from Ontario have been arrested on charges of terrorism after allegedly producing recruitment videos for a listed terrorist organization and circulating far-right manifestos online, police say.
1 in 9 Canadian adults have had long-term symptoms from COVID infection: StatCan
About one in nine Canadian adults have had long-term symptoms from COVID-19 infection, according to a Statistics Canada report issued Friday.
Pompeii archaeologists uncover bakery that doubled as a prison
An ancient bakery operated by slaves has been discovered in the ruins of Pompeii, the Pompeii Archaeological Park said in a statement released Friday.