Canada's Biggest Lottery Payouts

Lotteries have produced countless millionaires over the years in Canada. The lottery in Canada was introduced in 1969 as a means to raise funds for large-scale projects in both the provincial and federal governments.

As part of the government's effort to pay for the 1976 Montreal Olympics, the Canadian national lottery was established in 1974 to help finance it. In a $1 million prize draw, every $10 ticket bought provided a chance to win a share of the prize. A great number of millionaires were created in the 1990s and 2000s through national and regional lottery programs.

However, Canada's lottery records have only been elevated within the last two years. We have listed the most significant Lotto wins in Canada over the years. It is worth mentioning that the cryptocurrency lottery has become very popular and nowadays you can choose between multiple crypto lottery sites to test your luck on. These platforms work in a similar way to conventional lottery websites, however, they rely on blockchain technology instead. The process is quite simple: you buy your participation ticket and keep track of your serial number which has a chance to be picked by lottery at random.

Canada's Largest Lottery Wins

We should note that the Lotto Max jackpot currently has a cap before looking at the five biggest winners. In May 2019, the cap was raised from $60 million to $70 million for a single ticket.

Even though you may believe the cap doesn't cater to lucky winners, it actually ensures fairness in every draw. Instead of pooling the total lottery take too heavily onto one winning ticket, proceeds could be shared more evenly without compromising the jackpot substantially.

It is therefore no surprise that the biggest Canadian lottery wins have all come from that cap.

1. Adlin Lewis wins $70m jackpot

It was Adlin Lewis from Brampton from January 2020 who won the first Lotto Max jackpot to hit $70 million. Lewis went to work the day he won, knowing that he was a multi-millionaire. It was only after he returned home from work that he told his wife. His response: "I feel overwhelmed, excited, happy, shocked, and grateful."

2. A family of eight wins a $70m jackpot

In the month following Lewis' win, a family of eight from Quebec won the $70m jackpot. An unnamed 22-year-old worker claimed the winning ticket at his grocery store and had to call his dad for transportation home because he was shaking. An official confirmed that each member of the winner's family of eight would receive $8.75m as a share of the prize.

3. Shu Ping Li wins the $70m jackpot

The Lotto Max jackpot usually draws attention in Canada when it reaches $70 million. The same thing happened in October 2020, when Montrealer Shu Ping Li decided for the first time ever to play the lottery. Li bought ten lottery tickets at a local convenience store. The $70 million jackpot was the second $70 million prize Loto-Quebec had awarded to a local, following the family of 8 earlier in the year.

4. A Noëlville couple wins $70m jackpot

Following that massive win in Quebec, a Noëlville couple also struck the same $70 million jackpot. They were regular lottery ticket buyers, and Marc had bought a ticket at a gas station on February 26. Seeing that he had won, he told his wife. It is important for a parent to provide the best for their child, and now we can take care of them without worrying about it," Marc explained.

5. Splitting of a $70 million jackpot - $117 million payout record

There has been a windfall of $70 million won in Canadian Lotto history, but the biggest is still a $70m split between two ticket holders - this time in British Columbia and Ontario - but the June 2021 Lotto Max draw was the largest.

A record-breaking $117m was paid out to winners across the country - a whole $1 more than the earlier big pot record of $60 set in October 2018. Once the jackpot share is taken out, $47m is awarded to winners, and money is raised for charitable causes as well. Twenty-one winning tickets were sold in Ontario, eleven in British Columbia, ten in Quebec, and four in the Prairies.