Olmstead was revealed as the winner at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Prize Centre in Toronto. He revealed how he found out about the win at a local gas station and immediately ran back to his car when he discovered that he was CA$70 million richer.
“I went into the local grocery store, saw there was no one at the Ticket Checker and checked four tickets in my pocket. From the first three tickets I only had a Free Play but when I scanned the fourth ticket, I saw ‘Big Winner’ and thought I saw $70,000 flashing. I checked it a few more times and was stunned to realize it was $70 million!”
At that point the winner ran back to his truck and, in tears, made a call to his mother. “I told her, ‘These are tears of joy Mom because I just won $70 million.’ She was in shock, but when reality sunk in, my mom, who never swears, yelled a few expletives!”
It took five months for the winner to come forward and in that time speculation built as to why the winner hadn’t made themselves known. Olmstead explained that the reason behind the delay was because he wanted to get financial advice on how to manage the multimillion-dollar windfall.
When asked what he planned to do with the winnings, Olmstead said that his family was his priority. “First, buy a property for my kids and I, and my family, my mom. Make sure my kids are taken care of,” he said. “But I want to raise my children to know the value of a dollar, understand the meaning of hard work and to teach them how to provide for themselves when they are adults.”
After that, he said he intended to buy a fast car, a new fishing boat, and an RV so he and his family can travel across Canada.
The winning ticket was purchased from the Petro Canada/Double Seven Gas Bar on Chatham Street in Blenheim. The store manager, Tony Boutros, said, “I was hoping that it was here. That’s very exciting to see that it was.”
Olmstead’s prize was the third CA$70 million Lotto Max jackpot to be won in 2020, after two previous wins in January and February. There has been one other since April.
The Lotto Max jackpot cap currently sits at CA$70 million. It was increased from CA$60 million in May 2019 as part of wider changes to the game, including the addition of a second weekly draw every Tuesday. The new cap was not hit for the first seven months after the changes, but the maximum amount has been won four times so far in 2020, most recently in the July 31st draw, a prize that was claimed just a day later.
The estimated jackpot for Friday’s Lotto Max draw sits at CA$60 million, so just a couple more draws without a winner would take the prize to its CA$70 million cap for the fifth time this year.
