$70M Calgary lottery winner originally thought he won $70K

A Calgary man has made history by becoming the first Albertan to win $70 million on the Lotto Max lottery.

Mitchel Dyck was the only winner of the Lotto Max draw on 21 October, after matching all seven winning numbers.

Dyck said he doesn’t typically play the lottery, but said yes when a cashier asked if he wanted to play. He discovered his windfall on November 7 when he asked a cashier at a local store to check his ticket.

Dyck was ecstatic when he saw his ticket was a winner – even though at the time he didn’t even realize how much he had won.

“I handed it to the cashier who scanned it; I thought we won $70,000!” Dyck said. “We tried to count the zeros, but the numbers flew by quickly.

“I already had goosebumps.”

When he realized his ticket was worth $70 million, he said the moment was surreal.

“Then we started counting and realized it was $70 million. I thought, ‘Is this even a thing?'” Dyck said. “It was just something you never expected.”

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$70M Lotto Max jackpot finally claimed after weeks

Dyck said the moments that followed were a blur. He went with the cashier to the back room where the ticket was verified by the price office. He kept the ticket overnight and immediately found a safe for it the next day.

The man from Calgary said he and his family are going to be smart with the money.

“We have found a private banker who will help us manage it,” he said. “Because at the moment it just goes in the bank until we can make more plans.”

Dyck’s winning ticket came after a record 21 draws from mid-August to late October. This is the second time a $70 million jackpot has been won by a ticket sold in Alberta.

The last ticket sold in the county was in Dunmore, Alta. The winner of that jackpot lives in Regina. He and his family were on a ski trip to BC when they picked up a ticket along the way.

There have been a total of 13 $70 million Lotto Max winners across Canada.

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