Saskatchewan’s latest lottery multi-million said he was shocked when he scanned his winning Lotto Max ticket.
“I just saw a lot of zeros,” Ernie Anuik said on Wednesday as he claimed the $20-million jackpot in the Feb. 15 draw.
“There were a couple of people behind us and I don’t think they realized what was happening.”
Anuik said he used the checker at a Shoppers Drug Mart in Yorkton three times before calling his son over to check the ticket together another three times.
After validating the ticket with a clerk, he went home and phoned his children.
“I called my kids and asked, ‘Are you sitting down?’” Anuik recalled before telling them of the big win.
“There was some skepticism at first, but everything was alright.”
He is taking some time to decide his plans for the money, but plans to talk with a financial planner.
“There is no such thing as a sure thing and nothing lasts forever,” he said.
“If you can accept those two things, you can get through a lot of stuff in life.”
Anuik’s win is the third multi-million-dollar lottery win in Saskatchewan in the last five months.
In January, Dustin Keifer won $50 million in the Jan. 10 Lotto Max draw.
And in October 2021, Matthew Poppel took home a $55-million Lotto Max prize.
The largest lottery win in Saskatchewan history was in August 2016 when a Neville resident won the $60-million Lotto Max prize.