Canadian man charged with theft, fraud after claiming $1M lottery prize meant for three winners

Comment #12

KY Floyd — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 18:27:07 GMT

All about Encore.

Sounds like Encore is essentially a completely separate game but you can only buy it when buying a ticket in another game. If that's the case it sounds like the group's free ticket didn't win anything, but the Encore add-on the guy paid for himself won a prize. In that case I'd say the guy did nothing legally wrong unless the group always buys Encore when buying a ticket. If they don't there's may be a reasonable argument that he should have consulted them about adding it... [ More ]

Comment #11

Lotterologist — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 14:05:06 GMT

Like the Bible says, The love of money is the root of all evil.

If I was the judge in this case, i'd award his 2 partners each with 40% of the winnings and I would award him with the remaining 20 percent.

Comment #10

grwurston — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 06:34:54 GMT

All about Encore.

https://www.olg.ca/en/frequently-asked-questions/lottery-games/encore.html

If you ever run a pool you make copies of the tickets and hand out the copies to the participants before the drawing. That way it avoids any problems if someone wins with a ticket that they bought for themselves outside of the pool.

Comment #9

MrLotto$ — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 05:02:30 GMT

#proveit

Comment #8

MrLotto$ — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 05:02:00 GMT

That's my story and I'm sticking with it

Comment #7

Tony Numbers — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 22:16:52 GMT

Down wit. OPP, yeah u know me

Comment #6

Mobile Merchant — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 22:00:14 GMT

You raised some interesting views there my friend but I think claiming a prize from off of the winnings of the Encore play and not saying a word to his fellow participants imho is just str88 up greed. Plain and simple!

Now at his age and stage in life look at all the drama and publicity he has put himself through for a lousy third of the prize pool. What I'm wondering is whether or not his friends had a copy of the original ticket with the encore number printed on it and they not noticing t... [ More ]

Comment #5

Lotterologist — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 20:31:43 GMT

LOL

Comment #4

KY Floyd — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 19:26:51 GMT

Any winnings from the original ticket should be divided 3 ways ,including any winnings from the free play ticket.

That's absolutely true, but ...

When I handed my ticket to the cashier, she asked me if I wanted to add Encore to it, so I said, 'Sure, why not?'

I don't know what Encore is, except that it's an extra cost add-on that offers other/more ways/chances to win. If the plain vanilla free ticket wouldn't have won then his decision to buy the Encore option is the reason the tic... [ More ]

Comment #3

noise-gate — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 19:13:39 GMT

* The article says the win may have resulted from a group win That a lot of maybes.

* What's the rules when it comes to pools? Is one prohibited from purchasing any tickets outside the pool

Comment #2

sully16 — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 18:25:39 GMT

oops Alex need to share.

Comment #1

LottoBux — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 15:35:51 GMT

I 'm guessing that because it was from a Free Play ticket,

that his co-players may not have noticed that it matched all 7 digits for the top prize.

(And you must match all 7 digits)

Any winnings from the original ticket should be divided 3 ways ,including any winnings from the free play ticket.

But why be greedy when you play as a group all the time

Maybe he'll argue that he played the Encore on his own and that they don't normally play it.

Not sure if the grou... [ More ]

Canadian man charged with theft, fraud after claiming $1M lottery prize meant for three winners

Lottery Post — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 13:30:37 GMT

Winner claims prize while excluding two co-players from winnings

By Kate Northrop

A Canadian man was accused of claiming a $1 million Lotto Max prize without including two other lottery players who were part of a group play arrangement.

A Toronto man presented a winning $1 million Lotto Max lottery ticket to the Ontario Lottery (OLG) as though he were the sole winner, but there were two other players who argue they were owed a share of the prize.

Alex Parucha, 70, was arrested by... [ More ]