Woodbridge man wins $50M Lotto Max jackpot
Posted October 25, 2011 11:41 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A seventy-three-year old recently retired mechanic stepped forward to claim a $50 million Lotto jackpot on Tuesday, more than three weeks after learning he’d won.
Franco Verone of Woodbridge received the mammoth cheque at OLG headquarters in Toronto.
“I retired four weeks ago. For now I want to relax, that’s it,” he said.
“I was trembling in my car when I saw I matched all seven numbers, so I told my wife right away and she started to cry.”
Verone, who has four children, said he’s been playing the same numbers for the past several years and doesn’t plan on doing anything extravagant with the money.
He came to Canada from Italy in 1960 after serving in the military.
“I worked very hard in my life,” he said. “You’re supposed to take care of money.”
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. issued a reminder to players last week to check their numbers after announcing a single ticket sold in Woodbridge was the winner of the Oct. 7 Lotto Max draw.
When asked why he took so long to come forward, he said, “I didn’t want to rush in like others do, I wanted to be prepared before collecting the cheque.”
The win makes Verone the biggest winner on a single ticket in Ontario history, OLG president Rod Phillips confirmed.
