Maybe it’s something in the water.
That’s the word from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation when it comes to cottage country’s recent run of lottery luck.
“We’re seeing a lot of love in the Muskoka and Parry Sound districts. So far in 2019, we’ve seen five prizes of $50,000 or more sold in the region. Now if we look at that over the last two years, in 2017 we saw nine prizes of $50,000 or more and in 2018 there were 10. So to have five prizes this big in the first three months of 2019 there’s definitely something going on in the water up there,” says OLG Spokesperson Dita Kuhtey.
Those wins include an $11 million ticket sold to a McDougall woman on March 20th in Parry Sound and a Huntsville woman winning $100,000 in January. Although it may seem like the OLG has decided to bless the region with more than a few extra dollars lately, Kuhtey says that isn’t the case.
“It’s all random and though it may seem so no region or city is luckier than any other. It really comes down to the luck of the draw and it’s just as likely our next jackpot winner will come from a smaller town like Gravenhurst as a big city like Toronto.”
About 40 per cent of all Lotto Max and 6/49 tickets are sold in Ontario and Kuhtey says as about 40 per cent of all winners come from Ontario.
“It’s fun and it’s nice to hear about wins happening locally, especially big wins. Definitely, we see our players are driven by local wins and are driven by the size of our jackpots as well,” observes Kuhtey.
She added lottery players in Muskoka and Parry Sound can expect the luck to go back to normal eventually, but Kuhtey believes it’s not such a bad thing when lottery players lose.
“One hundred per cent of the proceeds from lottery go back to the people of Ontario to support community events, to support hospitals, education, amateur athletes. All prizes are great. There are lots of smaller prizes to be won, those free tickets, those $2 prizes or $20 prizes. In fact, in 2018 in Parry Sound and Muskoka there was $17 million in total prizing claimed by tickets sold in those districts so there is a lot of winning going on and if you don’t win that money does go back to the community.”
In the meantime, you may want to jump on whatever is in the air or the water here that’s leading to so many big wins.
