Skip to content

T'was the season: Big money wins across Lakeland

Regional winners bring in millions from lottery wins

LAKELAND - While the calendar numbers are counting down to the start of the festive season, the lottery numbers have been turning up for Lakeland residents over recent months.

A string of Western Canada Lottery Corporation (WCLC) winners from across northeastern Alberta have shared in some significant big wins recently.

Nine winners announced over the last four months from Lac La Biche, Saddle Lake, Smoky Lake, Waskatenau, Athabasca, Boyle, Barrhead and Fort McMurray have taken in more than $2 million

The most recent winners, Boyle brother and sister David and Betty Holst won a cool million by matching the Nov. 4 Lotto 649 Guaranteed Prize Draw number.

Checking the ticket the next day on the WCLC app, it took a moment for it to sink in, said Betty.

"I thought somebody was playing a joke," she said in her statement for the WCLC's news release on the big win.

Although they live in Boyle, the ticket was purchased from a gas station in Athabasca. The pair plan to hold onto the money and perhaps look at splitting the cost of a retirement place "somewhere warm" once pandemic measures are over.

The Holsts join Donovan Whiskeyjack from Saddle Lake, whose $100,000 win on the 649 Extra number was announced in June, just days after Waskatenau's Ron and Judith McEachern's $100,000 win for five of six Lotto 640 Extra numbers was released. The June 20 Lotto 649 draw made Barrhead's Laura and Michael Dentith $100,000 richer, with an Extra win on a ticket purchased in a $24 super pack bought just days before the draw.

Counting zeroes

Lac La Biche's Sharon Stevens had to re-focus her eyes on the numbers flashing on the sign beside the WCLC ticket checking machine in October after realizing all seven of her Lotto 649 ticket's Extra numbers matched. She had won $250,000.

“I thought at first it was $25,000 – I had trouble counting the zeroes,” she chuckled. “I was stunned. I had to check it a few times.” 

Stevens doesn't have immediate plans for the quarter-million dollar windfall, planning to "put it away for now... for right now it can just sit in the bank."

A week before Stevens' win — and a week before that — the lottery numbers spun back-to-back wins in Smoky Lake.

The announcement of Lorraine Cox's $100,000 win for matching the  last six of her seven-digit Lotto 6-49 Extra numbers was made on September 28, just a week  after the announcement of fellow Smoky Lake resident Cheryl Van Iderstine's $100,000 win on a Crossword Tripler Zing scratch ticket..

A win on the same type of ticket produced a similar $100,000 win for Waskatenau's Richard Klem during the same time. Klem bought his winning Crossword ticket at a gas station in Gibbons. 

And in late August, Athabasca's Bernie Giacobbo, a former high school teacher in Lac La Biche, claimed his $100,000 prize after he matched six of seven digits on a Western 6-49 Extra number.

“When I saw that amount come up I was just so surprised that I kept checking the ticket to see if it was real,” he said in the WCLC recent news release.

Giacobbo ended up checking his ticket eight times on two different machines before the reality that he was a winner sunk in. 

Other notable wins from the region from this year include a million dollar payout to Athabasca's Joseph Jones in January for matching numbers on the million dollar guaranteed prize on Lotto 649 draw. Fellow Athabascan Lloyd Lachance matched all seven numbers of his Lotto Max Extra to claim a $250,000 prize. In April, Fort McMurray's Kyle Hurley won $139,830 for matching six of seven numbers — and the bonus on a Lotto Max ticket.

 “It was definitely exciting,” he told WCLC officials at the time. 

Random chances

Tonight's Lotto Max draw on Friday, Nov. 20  currently sits with a jackpot of $43 million. While the local winners in recent months do show the the results of playing, WCLC officials themselves emphasize the luck of the draw when it comes to winning tickets of any amount.

"Lottery games are games of chance, and the outcome is entirely random," states the opening of a large section for players on the WCLC website. "So, don’t overspend on lottery tickets, thinking there is some way to 'beat the system.' There isn’t. It only takes one ticket to win, and buying hundreds won’t substantially change your odds of winning."

To learn about common myths and how to recognize if your lottery play is becoming anything other than the game it should be, read: Learn the Facts: Keep it a Game.


Rob McKinley

About the Author: Rob McKinley

Rob has been in the media, marketing and promotion business for 30 years, working in the public sector, as well as media outlets in major metropolitan markets, smaller rural communities and Indigenous-focused settings.
Read more



Comments

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks