How to check lottery tickets online in Canada

You can check a Canadian lottery ticket online in two ways: scan its barcode with your provincial lottery corporation's app, or compare your numbers with the official winning numbers on its website. Each region has its own app, and each app only checks tickets sold in its own region. This guide lists the official apps province by province, explains what they scan, how tickets bought online are checked, what to do once you find a win, and how long you have to claim it.

The short answer

• Scan it: open the official app for the province where you bought the ticket and point the camera at the barcode.
• Compare it: look up the draw on the lottery corporation's winning numbers page and check every line, plus any add-on such as EXTRA or ENCORE.
• Have it checked: lottery retailers can scan the ticket for you, and many have a self-serve ticket checker at the terminal.
• Do it soon: terminal-printed tickets generally expire one year after the draw date, and scratch tickets carry their own expiry date.

Official lottery apps that scan tickets

We read each app's own App Store listing in Canada (checked November 7, 2026). The seller name is the quickest way to tell an official app from a copy.

A few details from the listings are worth knowing:

• Regions do not overlap. Lotto Spot! says plainly: "The app can only check tickets purchased within the WCLC region." The other listings do not say it as plainly, but each app belongs to the corporation that sold the ticket, so use the app of the province where you bought it.
• The checker is not always on. Lotto Spot!'s ticket checker "is available 23 hours a day, from 5 am to 4 am CT; 4 am to 3 am MT."
• Scanning can fail on a poorly printed barcode. WCLC's replies to app reviews blame earlier scanning problems on barcodes printed imperfectly at retail. If a scan fails, ask a retailer to check the ticket instead of guessing.
• Ages differ. The OLG listing says registrants must be 18 or older for lottery, the BCLC Lotto! listing says "Must be 19+ to play," and Lotto Spot! is meant for residents 18 and older.

The App Store also lists many unofficial "lottery ticket scanner" apps. They are not run by a lottery corporation, so their reading is not a validation. A prize is paid on the lottery corporation's own check, at its terminal or in its app.

How to check your numbers on the website

If you do not want to use an app, every lottery corporation posts winning numbers for each draw. OLG's claim page points players to its Check Winning Numbers page to "check your numbers online or check all the latest results for any draw game."

When you compare by hand:

1. Match the draw date. The date printed on the ticket must match the draw you are looking at. Advance-play tickets cover several draws.
2. Check every line. A ticket with several selections can win on one line and not another.
3. Check the add-ons separately. EXTRA, ENCORE and similar options have their own numbers and their own prize table.
4. Have a possible win confirmed. A manual comparison is a first check. The retailer's terminal or the official app confirms the prize.

Tickets bought online

If you bought the ticket from the lottery corporation's own website or app, you usually do not need to scan anything:

• Ontario: OLG says that "most prizes won on OLG.ca are paid directly to your OLG.ca account." In an August 2023 release about an unclaimed LOTTO MAX prize, OLG also told players they can buy through OLG.ca to receive email notifications if they win.
• Quebec: a Loto-Québec notice from June 2016 said that for a single transaction under $25,000 won on Espacejeux, the amount is deposited directly in the player's account, while prizes of $25,000 or more are claimed in person. Check the current claim page, because these rules can change.

Larger online wins can still need a claim. OLG's word "most" means some prizes are handled outside the account.

What to do once you find a win

Claim rules differ by region. Here is what each lottery corporation's own pages or releases say:

Before you claim, OLG asks you to sign the ticket, with "only one signature per ticket," and never to use white-out or scribble out information. AGLC asks Alberta players to print their name, address and phone number on the back, and to bring two pieces of valid government-issued ID with a recent photo, date of birth and signature.

If you won as a group, declare every member when you claim. Our guide to whether lottery winnings are taxed in Canada explains why group claims and gifts to family matter, even though the prize itself is not taxed.

How long do you have to claim?

Unchecked tickets do expire with real money on them. OLG declared a $70 million LOTTO MAX prize from the June 28, 2022 draw unclaimed in August 2023 and said the money was returned to the prize pool for future bonus games or promotions. OLG's advice in the same release: keep the ticket somewhere safe and easy to remember, and check it as soon as the draw is complete.

How to spot a lottery scam

Real lottery corporations do not call you to say you won a draw you did not enter, and they do not ask for a fee to release a prize. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre describes the pattern: fraudsters say you have won, then tell you that "before receiving any winnings, you must pay an advance fee or buy something," and "no winnings are ever received." It adds that payment is often requested through a money service business or with prepaid gift cards.

If a message says you won, check the ticket yourself in the official app or at a retailer, and contact the lottery corporation through the phone number on its own website, not the one in the message.

Which lottery should you play?

Checking a ticket is the easy part. If you are choosing between games, our guide to which lottery has the best odds compares the official jackpot and any-prize odds for LOTTO MAX, LOTTO 6/49, DAILY GRAND, LOTTARIO and others. Our guide to the legal gambling age in Canada lists the minimum age for lottery tickets in each province. For DAILY KENO, our keno odds guide lists the odds and return for each spot.

Play within a budget

Lottery tickets are entertainment, and most of the money spent on them is not returned as prizes. Decide what you will spend before you buy, and do not buy more tickets to make up for a losing draw. Free and confidential help is available in every province; our responsible gambling page lists the numbers.

Sources

• App Store: OLG (Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation)
• App Store: Loto-Québec (Société des loteries du Québec)
• App Store: BCLC Lotto! (British Columbia Lottery Corporation)
• App Store: Lotto Spot! (Western Canada Lottery Corporation)
• App Store: Atlantic Lottery Mobile (Atlantic Lottery Corporation)
• OLG: How to claim a prize
• OLG release: $70 million LOTTO MAX prize from June 28, 2022 draw officially declared unclaimed (August 10, 2023)
• Loto-Québec notice: claiming a lottery prize other than by mail (June 30, 2016, in French)
• Loto-Québec release: Loto-Québec recherche quatre millionnaires (July 26, 2016, in French)
• AGLC: What to expect when making a prize claim
• Global News: BCLC searching for winner of unclaimed $1 million ticket (September 5, 2023)
• Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre: Prize and lottery scams (modified January 16, 2026)