Canadian retiree wins $50M Lotto Max after delaying ticket check to “keep the dream alive"

Retired New Brunswick resident Shaun Ryan held the winning ticket to a $50m Lotto Max jackpot for days before checking it, choosing to delay the reveal simply to enjoy the anticipation. The Atlantic Lottery announced on 10 November that Ryan, a resident of Dalhousie, a small town on Chaleur Bay in Restigouche County, successfully matched all seven numbers in the 6 November draw to take home the massive $50m prize. The decision to delay checking the ticket came after local chatter alerted Ryan that the sole winning ticket for the draw had been purchased somewhere within his home county.

“My wife asked if we had a ticket and then my son texted me and asked if we bought one,” Ryan said in statements released by the Atlantic Lottery. “My wife asked if I was going to go check it and I said, 'No, not yet. I want to keep the dream alive.'” When Ryan eventually checked the numbers at his home, he realised every single digit on his slip aligned with the drawn combination.

“Boom, boom, boom,” Ryan recalled of the moment he verified the results.