Lotto luck hits Manitoba again

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This article was published 03/03/2007 (7037 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MAYBE the province’s slogan should be Jackpot Capital, instead of Spirited Energy, after a Manitoban Friday collected the fifth jackpot of at least $1 million in as many weeks.

Melissa Neault, 27, a resident of the O-Chi-Chak Ko Sipi First Nation and manager of the band’s store, joined a rapidly expanding club on Thursday when she scratched her SET FOR LIFE lottery ticket and instantly won the $1-million top prize.

John Matheson, a spokesman for Western Canada Lotteries Corp., said on Friday that Neault bought the ticket at a 7-Eleven store in Dauphin Thursday while visiting there with her boyfriend, Ralph MacDonald.

“We had to go on store business,” Neault told lottery officials. The woman has declined to hold a press conference.

“But I didn’t really want to go because of the weather and road conditions.”

But Neault’s boyfriend talked her into it. When the couple arrived in Dauphin, they purchased two SET FOR LIFE tickets at the 7-Eleven at 109 Main St.

“I scratched the first ticket immediately,” MacDonald said, “and it was a non-winner.”

Neault kept hers until they reached Ste. Rose du Lac.

When she finally scratched the ticket, she found three SET FOR LIFE symbols, giving her the game’s top prize.

“I was totally shocked,” said Neault, the mother of a four-year-old son.

She isn’t sure yet how she’ll spend the big windfall, although she did indicate that she wants to share some of her prize with family.

Word spread quickly on Thursday night through the First Nation, which has a population of just over 600. It’s located about 130 kilometres northeast of Dauphin.

Band store employee Donny Beauchamp said it’s great having a boss who is a millionaire.

“We’re so happy for her,” Beauchamp said. “She told her family about it (Thursday) night and word got around pretty fast.”

Liz McDonald, an employee at the band’s lounge, said she was pleased Neault won.

“I now can say I know a millionaire,” McDonald said. “She’s great and she’s really friendly.”

Matheson said it’s doubly lucky Neault won when she did because lottery officials are in the process of replacing the game she played. The new one will have two $1-million jackpot prizes and is called Thousand Prizes of $1,000.

“She was in the right place at the right time,” he said.

Meanwhile, no one has come forward to officially claim the MILLIONAIRE LIFE jackpot of $1 million a year for 25 years or a $17-million lump sum.

Workers at Winnipeg’s Standard s said Thursday that the winner of the mammoth prize is an employee there, but Matheson said all he knows about the winner is what he read in Friday’s Free Press.

Matheson said Manitobans have had an amazing streak of luck, starting Jan. 24 when a Brandon woman claimed $4.6 million.

Last month, a Winnipeg couple won $4.2 million, and two weeks later a Winnipeg woman used numbers mostly from a tarot card reading to win $6.8 million.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca