35-year-old wins the same lottery game his grandmother won seven years ago

Luck runs in Jason McMahon’s family. The lottery player had only been playing the Cash for Life game for several months when he won big.

The 35-year-old who lives in London, Ontario, said that he had only been playing the game regularly for about six months. He had won “some smaller winnings” from a previous ticket and decided to use $4 to buy another lottery ticket while at Valley Farm Variety on Huron Street.

“The clerk at the store picked the ticket for me,” McMahon recalled.

He was home when he decided to play his ticket and realized that he had won the Cash for Life top prize of $1,000 a week for life.

“I saw I had won but it didn’t feel real. I couldn’t help but smile,” he said. “When I told my girlfriend, she couldn’t believe it.”

He also called his mom and grandmother to share the news and it must’ve been quite the surprise, especially for his grandma, a fellow lottery winner.

Jason McMahon/OLG

“My grandmother won on Cash for Life seven years ago, so she was thrilled someone else in the family could share this experience with her,” McMahon said while at the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto to claim his winnings. “This win wasn’t supposed to happen. We were supposed to stop at a different store!”

Rather than opt for the lump sum, McMahon chose the annuity payments of $1,000 a week for life and he’s already making plans. In addition to saving his money, he’ll be using it to travel and plans to make a big purchase.

“I want to go everywhere,” he said. “I want to buy a camper van and pursue my wanderlust dreams. The first trip will be Canada – I need to figure out if we will start on the east or west coast.”