"That was real, holy cow": Toronto man wins $30 million in lottery

Patrick Hale recalls being in a daze when he realized that he’d won the lottery. The Lotto Max prize was $30 million.

“I just kept repeating, ‘I won the lottery’ and sat there feeling numb,” he said. “My stomach was in knots.”

The 56-year-old building supervisor from Toronto said that he had been playing the lottery for 30 years. As for the winning numbers, he’d picked his first line of numbers, but it was one of the Quick Pick lines that won him the jackpot.

“I woke up my wife to tell her, and she didn’t say anything. She didn’t believe me,” he said. “She still doesn’t.”

OLG

While at the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto, Hale stared at the massive cheque.

“That was real,” he said. “Holy cow.”

Hale said that he used to dream about winning the lottery so he could help those around him, and now he plans to do exactly that.

“It’s really important to me to be kind and generous to other people and help people who need it,” he said. “Because if you don’t help, what do you do in life? There’s nothing else to life.”

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Hale said he’s old enough to be wise about the decisions he’ll be making in the future; he plans to have the right advisors around him to help him manage the $30 million in his bank account. However, he’s grateful that he’s still young enough to enjoy his big win.

In addition to travelling and buying a house and a car, he’s excited about pursuing his dream of becoming an inventor.

“I have some ideas that I can now bring to life and create some tools that will make life easier and the world a better place,” he said. “Hopefully there are a few patents in my future.”

The winning ticket was purchased at Petro Canada on Don Mills Road in North York.