by Spotlight Staff
Were you one of the lucky ones?
More western lottery players than ever before will look back on 2015 as a year of extraordinary good luck. A record 76 lottery prizes of $1 million and more were claimed on tickets sold within Western Canada Lottery Corporation’s region in the year just ended.
And those 76 winning tickets were worth an amazing $281 million.
The previous record for most wins was set in 2014, when 58 prizes of a million dollars or more were claimed. The previous record for the total value of million-dollar prizes was set in 2010, with a total of $265 million.
All three of the Prairie provinces also set their own new records for the number of million-dollar lottery prizes in a calendar year. Alberta saw 49, while Saskatchewan saw 15, and Manitoba, 10.
And with two million-dollar prizes paid in a single year, Yukon brought its lifetime total to four. Yukon residents previously claimed million-dollar prizes in 2005 and 2013.
Winners of the 76 prizes came from 37 separate communities. With the largest concentrations of players, major cities saw the greatest proportion of million-dollar winners. Calgary and Edmonton had 11 and 15 respectively; Regina saw two and Saskatoon had three; while Winnipeg weighed in with seven.
But showing that winning the lottery is a matter of luck that can strike anywhere, several of the milliond ollar winners were from small towns and villages. Five were from communities with populations less than 1,000. These included Marsh Lake, Y.T.; Midale and Ponteix, Sask.; Beiseker and Fort Kent, Alta.
In fact, one of the largest jackpots in the region was won by a resident of the smallest community on the list. A $50 million LOTTO MAX jackpot was won in Fort Kent, population of about 200.
Thirty of the million-dollar wins across the region came from LOTTO MAX tickets, and 22 were from Canada’s other national lottery game, LOTTO 6/49.
Nine $1 million Scratch’n Win prizes rounded out the list.
As players check and double-check lottery tickets they may have purchased or received as gifts over the holidays, the beginning of 2016 could be the start of another record-setting year.
Lottery players who discover a major win on their ticket can contact WCLC Customer Care at 1-800-665-3313 to make arrangements to claim their prize.