Disabled man wins $37M lottery jackpot
Posted: 6/12/2007 8:21:12 AM
He's 55 years old, single, with no children, lives in a rooming house, and has been on disability since October.
Oh, and Graham Gelineau is also $37 million richer after winning Saturday's whopping Lotto 6/49 jackpot — the largest single-ticket prize to be claimed in Ontario.
The Toronto man doesn't drive, so he took the subway to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.'s downtown office Monday afternoon to pick up his winnings.
Apart from the money, my life's going to stay pretty much the same," Gelineau said.
"That's what I think, but who knows what the future holds. ... I want to reflect on it and take my time. It's a big responsibility."
Gelineau said he would share the money with family and friends, and donate some to charities.
He also said he no longer plans to work and will move out of the rooming house into an apartment.
But aside from that, he mostly refused to offer details on how he plans to spend his winnings.
"I'll buy a new chess set," he said — but made of wood, not anything elaborate.
Gelineau found out he was a winner when he checked his ticket early Sunday morning.
"When I woke up, the first thing I thought, bizarrely, was to check my numbers," he said.
When he phoned the lottery corporation's automated service to hear the winning numbers, he couldn't believe it. So he hung up and called again just to make sure.
"I checked the numbers again, that's what I did — several times, to be frank."
Gelineau has been buying tickets at the same west-end convenience store for a couple of months since he moved into the area, although he has been playing lotteries off and on for the past 30 years.
When he had his ticket validated at the store where he purchased it, Gelineau said there was a moment of panic when the terminal shut down and special music played to indicate a win exceeding $10,000.
"The owners thought somehow the ticket had destroyed the machine," Gelineau said. "Then they got a call from the lottery office and they explained the situation.
"Never in a million years did I think I'd win this much money. Never. I had a good feeling, but then I do every draw."
Gelineau said he didn't have a system or a set of lucky numbers.
"Just random good guessing, that's all," he said. "No science, no inside knowledge, just random luck.
"You think about it, you envision, you have all kinds of daydreams that you entertain, but to actually win this kind of money and then ... it's a whole different ball game, believe me. A whole different reality."
Source: Canadian Press
