Beer in Las Vegas first thing on Winnipeg couple’s $60M lottery-winning agenda

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This article was published 14/04/2023 (1249 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Janice and Randy Glays were fretting over grocery and gas bills like most other Manitobans a few weeks ago.

Today, they’re multimillionaires.

The retired couple are the winners of a $60 million Lotto Max win, the largest prize from a single retail lottery ticket in Manitoba history. The winning ticket was a $6 Quick Pick — with the Extra — Randy bought along with another ticket (a $1 winner) at the St. Anne’s Road Superstore late last month. The winning numbers were announced March 31.

Janice fought back tears as she and her husband were joined by friends and family at the Fairmont Hotel Friday morning for the Western Canada Lottery Corp.’s announcement of their win.

“You always dream about what you want to do,” she said. “Randy wants to go to Vegas and have a beer. That’s the first thing, and then we’ll take it from there.”

The winning numbers were 1, 3, 26, 28, 36, 47 and 50.

When the pair checked their tickets at the Kildonan Place Shoppers Drug Mart April 1 and the machine informed them they had won $60 million, they thought it was an April Fool’s Day prank. But when they showed the ticket to a shocked clerk, it suddenly became real.

The win is just $20 short of the all-time biggest win in Manitoba, awarded to a family of four on a ticket sold through the online lottery portal PlayNow.com in 2021.

“Often there’s this perception that the big wins only happen in the bigger provinces, but they happen in the prairies, they happen in the Western Canada Lottery Corp. region all the time,” said Carmyn Peppler, vice-president of player and retail experience at WCLC.

The Glayses started dating when they were 16, and have been married 45 years. Randy, who retired last year, worked in various fields, including retail and food services.

At times, they were living cheque to cheque. Janice said she’s happy to say goodbye to that stress.

“We can go buy groceries and not have to worry about how much it’s going to cost,” she said, then quickly added, “Well, I’ll still worry about that. It’s in my blood.”

They’re avid volunteers, and lend a hand at the Manitoba Marathon and Winnipeg Comedy Festival. Randy has also spent 20 years volunteering as a Santa Claus at Silver Heights Restaurant events.

Janice said that won’t change. Other things have.

They’re in the process of moving out of their apartment and into a house, and have contacted a lawyer to help them turn the money into what Janice called “a generational winning” for their son and grandchildren.

“We want to live a normal life as much as possible,” she said. “Thankfully, you still can wear masks around, when we go out we can put a mask on and we won’t seem any different than anybody else.”

Randy said the massive win won’t end his lottery-ticket buying.

“I’ve won once, I can try it for twice,” he said.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca