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Ontario $1 million lottery winner 'had a feeling' about his scratch ticket

Winning the lottery isn't exactly a high-probability investment, and you likely have better odds paying TTC fare and finding an envelope full of money than you do turning that same amount of bus fare into a life-changing prize.

But if you aren't the type to create an Excel spreadsheet to help win the lottery, chances are you're going to rely on either dumb luck or a gut feeling — which, let's be real, is just a different flavour of dumb luck.

One Whitby, Ontario man trusted his gut and ended up a million bucks richer, purchasing a $100 INSTANT ULTIMATE scratch card from the Friendly Variety & Videos on Garrard Road in Whitby and walking out with a ticket that would multiply his investment ten-thousand-fold.

Feyazuddin Mohammed has been playing the lottery for 15 years and landed his first big win with the $1 million scratch ticket, one of the 40 separate $1 million prizes doled out in the December 31, 2022 INSTANT ULTIMATE draw.

It's a pricey ticket at $100, but the game has much higher odds of winning a prize than your standard lottery ticket, at 1 in 3.55.

Despite years of feeding the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) petty cash on lottery games, Mohammed told OLG officials that he "had a feeling" that his ticket would be a winner, and was welcomed with quite the surprise after a decade and a half of trying his luck.

Upon collecting his oversized novelty cheque at the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto, the public sector worker told lottery officials that he predicted the win moments before scratching off the card.

"As I was scratching my ticket, I told my wife, 'This feels like a winner,' and when I checked it using the OLG App after the draw, I froze when I saw $1 million appear on the screen! My wife and I were holding each other and jumping with joy!"

Mohammed has had years of lottery experience to dream up all sorts of possibilities for a future win, but at this point, all he wants to do is pay off some bills, invest, and plan for his retirement.

"I feel honoured to receive such a rare experience. I feel a lot of gratitude," he concluded.

Lead photo by

OLG


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