Handful of Lucky Canadians Win the Jackpot in 2023
Most people have daydreamed about winning the lottery, and it’s hard to blame them. Receiving a life-changing amount of money is a big deal, and it can happen to anyone. Who knows… maybe you could be next! Without further ado, here are some stories from the lucky few Canadians who became lottery winners in 2023.
Written by:
Luke Garrison
Published: 19 December 2023
Quebec Native Wins $50 Million Thanksgiving Jackpot
Canadians love Thanksgiving, which the country celebrates within the first two weeks of October.
This year, Pierre Richer from Quebec won $50 million after offhandedly picking up two Lotto Max tickets from a grocery store. He was out grabbing some last-minute Thanksgiving fixings with his daughter.
“I wasn’t going to buy it this week, but I had two free tickets in my pockets,” Richer told reporters. “I went to play them and I asked for two Lotto Max at the counter and that’s what happened. It cost me $10.”
In fact, they were only at that location because of a pie crust sale exclusively being held there.
The draw took place on the Friday of that weekend, and Richer had no idea he’d won until his wife and daughter noticed on Saturday.
Most people would immediately drop their current life for one of elegance and luxury, but not Richer. In fact, his reaction was fairly minimal upon hearing the news.
Even more surprisingly, Richer went back to work at 4 a.m. on Thanksgiving Monday. For more context, he’s a man in his 60s and this is a low-paying catering job.
Richer doesn’t have many plans for the winnings either, although he will definitely be taking some time off to enjoy them. Isn’t it nice when a salt-of-the-earth human being wins a jackpot?
Ontario Man Receives $35 Million Graduation Present
Some say the secret to making a lot of money starts with education. In this instance, it doesn’t.
“Jay” Jayasinghe from Ontario won $35 million through Lotto Max back in June, and school had nothing to do with it. On the other hand, the win came a week after his daughter’s university graduation.
Talk about a good week! Jay said that it was like winning twice. He has been a retail worker since first moving to Canada and typically waits until the Lotto Max jackpot gets big enough to be worthy of a buy.
A road trip and a new car are a couple of Jay’s more frivolous plans. The rest will go towards more practical things such as his daughter’s education expenses, a new house, and charity.
His wife was the first to hear the news, and instantly knew something was up.
“When I was finally able to get the words ‘Lotto Max’ out of my mouth, she was so happy and started to laugh! I drove home to pick her up, so we could go back to the store to validate it together,” Jay told reporters.
British Columbia Resident Initially Rejects $2.5 Million Prize
This is a story we can all likely relate to. Ryoichi Yamada won $2.5 million from Lotto 6/49, but he wasn’t convinced at first.
“I was working and got an email,” Yamada told reporters. “(The email) said I won a prize and it exceeded the amount in my account and I thought it was a scam.”
Can you blame him? Chances are you’ve seen this kind of scam before, with the difference being that it was actually a scam. For Yamada, it ended up being a dream come true.
Once Yamada logged onto PlayNow.com – the primary lotto provider for several Canadian provinces – he realized it was all very real.
The grand prize was actually $5 million, with $2.5 million being the final amount as another player from Ontario picked the same winning numbers.
Northern Ontario Woman Unknowingly Becomes Millionaire For Months
This story gives the expression ‘pleasantly surprised’ a whole new meaning, and put small-town Cameron, Ontario, on the map.
Karen Redmond won $1 million through Lotto Max, from an Encore ticket that only cost $1 to add to a Lotto Max ticket.
Many add it as an afterthought since it’s so cheap, and an afterthought is what it became for Karen once she bought it from a Shoppers Drug Mart in March.
Fast-forward two months, when Redmond was holding a yard sale and managed to slip away for a moment to check the old ticket – which had innocently been sitting in her purse the whole time.
“I was having a yard sale when I took a break to check it,” Remond told staff at the OLG prize centre in Toronto. “When I realized I won, I gave away the rest of the items in my yard sale.”
Her plans included sharing her winnings with both her children and grandchildren, and of course, a vacation.
The village of Cameron only has 221 residents, and it’s very likely this lotto win is the most exciting thing that’s happened around those parts for quite some time.
New Canadian Wins $1 Million In The Peg
Immigrating to a new country is never an easy experience, but sometimes luck favours the bold.
Oleksii Shyplenko won $1 million from Lotto 6/49 back in August, however he had no idea until late November!
“I guess you could say I collect tickets,” Shyplenko said in a release from the Western Canada Lottery Corporation. “I don’t check them often, but I checked this one a few times because I couldn’t believe what I saw!
Like many lucky lottery stories, the winning ticket was bought on a whim at a grocery store. With that kind of money, Shyplenko can achieve his ultimate dream of financial stability in Canada.
He became the fifth Manitoba resident to win $1 million from Lotto 6/49’s infamous gold ball draw.
Sources: www.globalnews.ca
