An Ontario man allegedly kept $1 million to himself after winning the lottery with a group
He faces serious charges following an OPP investigation
An Ontario man has been charged with theft and fraud over $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime after allegedly reneging on a group-play lottery arrangement after he won $1 million. As first reported by the Canadian Press, the 70-year-old man allegedly agreed to split any hypothetical Lotto Max winnings among three players, then kept the jackpot to himself.
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The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation’s forensics team referred the case to the Ontario Provincial Police after reviewing the claim, and police confirmed that the $1-million ticket had been purchased by a group in East York.
“I won a free play, so I went to the store to claim it. When I handed my ticket to the cashier, she asked me if I wanted to add Encore to it, so I said, ‘Sure, why not?’” the man said in an OLG media release celebrating his windfall earlier this year. “I was in disbelief. I double-checked my ticket and counted the zeroes,” he continued. “When I realized it was a $1-million prize, I was overwhelmed.” (Maybe so overwhelmed that he forgot to tell the others.)
It’s nice to do things with friends, even if they essentially constitute gambling, but maybe playing the lottery should be a solo endeavour—just to avoid messy situations like this, however statistically unlikely.
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Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
