--- title: Quebec Man Loses $21 Million Lottery Jackpot By 7 Seconds description: Joel Ifergan's winning lottery ticket printed out seconds too late canonical: https://time.com/3688040/canadian-lottery-quebec-joel-ifergan/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-29T19:52:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:16:22.268Z og:title: How 7 Seconds Cost A Man $21 Million og:description: Timing is everything og:url: https://time.com/3688040/canadian-lottery-quebec-joel-ifergan/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfb3ee218dcb2c344/69877ab4524fc0e85fdebfe8/money-1280x720.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1280 og:image:height: 720 og:image:alt: Money 1280X720 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How 7 Seconds Cost A Man $21 Million twitter:description: Timing is everything twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfb3ee218dcb2c344/69877ab4524fc0e85fdebfe8/money-1280x720.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How 7 Seconds Cost a Man $21 Million > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=80652679-11f6-4c0f-b7d8-5d0e8d26bf91&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Jan 29, 2015 7:52 PM UTC  Getty Images by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Jan 29, 2015 7:52 PM UTC A Québécois man missed out on winning a lottery jackpot worth $21.4 million (27 million Canadian dollars) because his winning ticket printed out seven seconds too late. A Canadian court [dismissed Joel Ifergan’s appeal Thursday](http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/7-seconds-too-late-scc-won-t-hear-27m-lotto-appeal-1.2211516) after the almost-but-not-quite-winner said that he should still be eligible to win half the prize money. Ifergan bought two Super 7 lottery tickets at 8:59 p.m. for the May 23, 2008 jackpot. But while one ticket was eligible for the 23rd, the second was printed out after the clock struck nine, and only counted for the May 30 jackpot. And as fate would have it, the ticket marked for the 30th had the winning numbers for the 23rd. Ifergan blames Loto-Quebec’s ten second processing delay. After spending years and at least $80,000 on the case, Ifergan tells [CTV](http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/7-seconds-too-late-scc-won-t-hear-27m-lotto-appeal-1.2211516), “Yes, it cost me a lot of money, but it also consumed me for seven years.” \[[_CTV_](http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/7-seconds-too-late-scc-won-t-hear-27m-lotto-appeal-1.2211516)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3688040/canadian-lottery-quebec-joel-ifergan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3688040/canadian-lottery-quebec-joel-ifergan/"},"headline":"How 7 Seconds Cost a Man $21 Million","datePublished":"2015-01-29T19:52:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:16:22.268Z","description":"Joel Ifergan's winning lottery ticket printed out seconds too late","url":"https://time.com/3688040/canadian-lottery-quebec-joel-ifergan/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Bizarre","Lottery"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfb3ee218dcb2c344/69877ab4524fc0e85fdebfe8/money-1280x720.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfb3ee218dcb2c344/69877ab4524fc0e85fdebfe8/money-1280x720.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Money 1280X720","caption":"","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3688040/canadian-lottery-quebec-joel-ifergan/","name":"How 7 Seconds Cost a Man $21 Million"}}]}] ```