How to read "prizes remaining" lists for Canadian scratch tickets

Which Canadian lotteries publish the lists

Three of the large lottery organisations post game-by-game prize status pages, and each counts something slightly different:

For BCLC and Atlantic Lottery, a comparable public remaining-prizes report could not be confirmed for this article. If you play in British Columbia or Atlantic Canada, check the individual game page or ask the lottery directly before relying on a third-party list.

What the WCLC list counts

WCLC states that its page lists prizes of $100 or more that have not yet been claimed on tickets currently in the market or that have not yet expired. Three details on the page matter when reading it:

• Release date is the date distribution of the game began, not the date of the last restock.
• Tickets on the list may no longer be available at retail, because prizes can be claimed up to the expiry date printed on the ticket.
• Games marked with an asterisk are sold in all participating jurisdictions, and their remaining counts are national totals, not counts for one province.

The page dated October 23, 2026 shows two versions of the same $1 game. Lucky 7s game 20073, released March 10, 2025, had 45 prizes of $100, 4 of $500, 18 of $777 and 1 of $7,777 remaining. Lucky 7s game 20074, released October 5, 2026, had 455 prizes of $100 and 20 of $777 remaining. The newer game simply has more of its print run still in circulation. Because prizes under $100 are not listed, the page tells you nothing about the small wins that make up most of a game's prizes.

What "overall odds 1 in X" means

Every game page carries an overall odds figure. WCLC's page for $5 Full Of $500s, game 26335, for example, states overall odds of 1 in 3.48, says a ticket can win up to 20 times, and says prizes must be claimed on or before December 31, 2027.

Overall odds describe the whole print run. They mean that, across all tickets printed, about one ticket in 3.48 carries a prize of some kind. They do not mean that buying four tickets guarantees a win, and they do not say how large the prize will be: in the Loto-Québec example below, the most common prizes are a free ticket and $3. As tickets are sold and claimed, the odds for the tickets still in a given store can drift up or down, and no public list can tell you which tickets those are.

A worked example from Loto-Québec

Loto-Québec's report of October 20, 2026 is the most complete of the three, because it shows every prize level for its own games. (For games run through the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation, such as Ultra, Élite and La Voûte, it shows only prizes of $1,000 and over.) The table below uses its figures for the instant game Bingo, number 7-5702, and adds a remaining column calculated from them.

The report lists 22 prize levels for this game, from a free ticket to $25,000; only some are shown above. Across all 22, 751,489 of 928,826 prizes, about 81 per cent, had been claimed. All four $25,000 prizes were gone, while roughly one in five of the $3 and free-ticket prizes was still out.

Compare a later Bingo game, 7-6701, with an almost identical prize structure. On the same report, none of its four $25,000 prizes and none of its four $5,000 prizes had been claimed, and about 33 per cent of all its prizes had been claimed. The two games look the same in a store, but a buyer of 7-5702 is playing for a top prize that no longer exists.

Why a game with no top prizes left can still be on sale

Instant tickets are printed in a fixed run with a fixed set of winning tickets spread through it. When the top prizes are claimed, the remaining tickets still hold the smaller prizes printed for them, so the game is not empty. The Loto-Québec figures show this directly: game 7-5702 still had tens of thousands of unclaimed $3, $10 and free-ticket prizes after its top prizes were gone.

There is also a timing gap. A prize appears as claimed only after the winner cashes it, and winners can wait until the claim deadline on the ticket. WCLC warns that some games on its list may already be off retail shelves, and OLG notes that its national games, such as VAULT, ELITE, $1,000,000 ULTRA and EXTREME, are updated weekly rather than daily. A top prize that shows as "remaining" may be sitting in someone's drawer, and one that shows as claimed may have come from the last roll in the province.

Reading the lists without overreading them

• Look at the ratio, not the count. Two top prizes left on a game that is almost sold through is different from two left on a game released last month.
• Check the release date on WCLC, and compare claimed shares across levels on Loto-Québec: if the small prizes are 80 per cent claimed, most of the run has been sold.
• Remember the cut-offs: $100 and over on WCLC, $1,000 and over for interprovincial games on Loto-Québec.
• Remaining prizes do not change the cost of a ticket or guarantee a return. A scratch ticket remains a game where most of the money spent is not returned.

More on how odds and house edge work across games is in the games guides.

What to do before buying

1. Find the game number on the ticket or display and look it up on the lottery's own page: WCLC, Loto-Québec or OLG.
2. Check whether the top prizes are still listed as remaining and how far through the run the game appears to be.
3. Read the overall odds and the claim deadline on the game page.
4. Set a budget for tickets before you go, and do not buy more to chase a listed prize.
5. Unclaimed OLG questions go to the OLG Support Centre at 1-800-387-0098. For gambling worries in Ontario, ConnexOntario is at 1-866-531-2600; other provinces are covered on the responsible gambling page and in the provincial guides.