Two-time lottery winner picks up $15 million

Nov 12, 2007, 1:27 pm (6 comments)

Canada 6/49

Robert Hong had a better chance of opening an oyster in his Kirkland Lake restaurant and finding a pearl than winning a lottery. But he did it — twice.

Win the lottery that is — not find a pearl.

On Saturday, Hong discovered he had picked all six numbers in the Lotto 6/49 draw, giving him a $15 million jackpot.

Just six months ago, he had a $340,000 win with a friend.

"I really couldn't believe it," Hong said after picking up his prize at the Toronto prize office on Tuesday. "To win again after such a short amount of time, I had to look at the numbers a few times and sit back and see that those were actually the winning numbers."

The odds of winning the top prize are about one in 14 million. The chances of winning twice are, well, astronomical.

Robert Hong had a better chance of opening an oyster in his Kirkland Lake restaurant and finding a pearl than winning a lottery. But he did it. Twice.

Win the lottery that is - not find a pearl.

On Saturday, Hong discovered he had picked all six numbers in the Lotto 6/49 draw, giving him a $15 million jackpot.

Just six months ago, he had a $340,000 win with a friend.

"I really couldn't believe it," Hong said after picking up his prize at the Toronto prize office on Tuesday. "To win again after such a short amount of time, I had to look at the numbers a few times and sit back and see that those were actually the winning numbers."

The odds of winning the top prize are about one in 14 million. The chances of winning twice are, well, astronomical.

To compare, the website Webmath.com says the odds of a woman giving birth to quadruplets are 705,000 to one, and the odds of finding that pearl are a mere 12,000 to one.

Hong has put in long hours operating his family-run, third-generation restaurant in the small Northern Ontario city.
He says he'll still run the restaurant but will cut back on his hours.

"Basically that [job] consumes about 90 per cent of my time, so I don't have a very long time for other things. Now I have a lot of time," Hong said through a large smile.

His wife, Susan Hong, says the family will be able to "enjoy life now."

A second winning ticket in the 6/49 draw was sold in Quebec. That winner hasn't stepped forward yet.

CBC News

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Comments

Bradly_60's avatarBradly_60

I was expecting that the guys occupation was a retailer that sold lottery tickets....haha

Brad

MissNYC's avatarMissNYC

That just shows that NOTHING is impossible.

rteague's avatarrteague

interesting story...but check this out...i was at the store tonight buying my tickets and one of the "regulars" came in and we were talking..and he said  to me " hey i have a buddy in Canada that just won the lottery TWICE...he said yeah this guy spends $100 weekly for over 10 years and has just recently won BIGTIME twice...i said cool,chatted with him and acted as if i believed him..then i come home,get on LP and here's a story about it...rekon the dude really knows him or is it just something he read about...i don't know,but i know this,I'm in North Carolina,this happened in Canada,not the same neighborhood,lol..  maybe he really does know the guy...i will see him again and next time i'll get more info...it was just weird because i hadn't heard of it till i was in the store,then came home and read it on LP...     

ThatScaryChick's avatarThatScaryChick

Congrats to him. He's a very lucky guy! Winning two large jackpots must be a great feeling.

smooththaboss

now that's luck

LOTTOMIKE's avatarLOTTOMIKE

very lucky indeed......

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