OLG Marks 50 Years With Free $1M Wintario Contest
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation is turning 50, and to celebrate this milestone, something pretty exciting has been announced — Ontarians are being given a completely free chance to win a million dollars. That’s right, no ticket purchase is needed for this one.
The initiative is called the Welcome to Wintario Contest , a nod to OLG’s very first lottery game, Wintario, which started back in the mid-1970s. It’s being described not just as a giveaway, but as a way of thanking players for decades of support. According to OLG president and CEO Duncan Hannay, this is about celebrating the people who’ve kept the games going for half a century. He pointed out that every bit of profit OLG makes stays in Ontario, helping to reinvest billions into healthcare, sports, charities, and community programs. So while people have been chasing prizes over the years, the money has also been flowing back into the province.
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Here’s how this special contest works. The grand prize is $1 million, and alongside that, 50 secondary prizes of $1,000 are being offered. The best part? Anyone who is an Ontario resident, aged 18 or older, can enter once for free. No purchase is necessary, and entries are being accepted between August 18 and October 19, 2025. All it takes is signing up through the contest website, and that single entry puts you in the running.
This isn’t the first anniversary event tied to Wintario either. Earlier this month, OLG held a one-night-only lottery game called Wintario50 . That special draw revived the name of the original game and featured 100 guaranteed jackpots of $50,000 each. Tickets for that event had to be purchased, but this new contest flips the idea on its head by offering a shot at the million for free.
The history behind this is quite something. Since its beginnings in 1975, OLG has handed out over $59 billion in lottery prizes and has contributed about $62 billion back into Ontario. The impact has been massive — whether through funding hospitals, supporting youth athletics, or helping community organizations. This 50th anniversary is really being used as a moment to highlight both the entertainment side of lotteries and the social good that comes with them.
For players, it’s a pretty rare opportunity. A free entry, one shot at $1 million, and dozens of smaller cash prizes mean there’s something at stake without any cost to get in. It’s essentially OLG’s way of saying thank you for half a century of loyalty while giving people across the province a reason to join in on the celebration.
So if you’re in Ontario and over 18, this could be a once-in-a-lifetime chance. No ticket to buy, no numbers to pick — just a free entry that could turn into a million-dollar surprise.
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