Hamilton woman claims $50M jackpot

(Update)

A remarkable story of a massive lottery win for someone who’d lost their ticket. Kathryn Jones didn’t know she’d won a $50-million jackpot until the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) showed up at her door. The 55-year old is the third big jackpot winner from Hamilton this year.

This is the first time in the OLG’s history that it has tracked down a jackpot winner. Usually it’s the other way around, hundreds of people claim it’s theirs, OLG investigates and then awards the money to the appropriate person but in this case Kathryn Jones of Hamilton would never have known she was a fifty-million dollar winner if the OLG didn’t knock on her door.

Kathryn Jones, newest multi-millionaire: “They said we’re from the OLG and they wanted to speak to me and we weren’t sure we wanted to let them in the house.”

But after the OLG investigators showed their identification, the fifty-five year old from Hamilton welcomed them inside her home in late October. They approached her after investigating 435 inquiries about the fifty-million dollar winnings. One of those inquiries lead them to Kathryn. The fifty-million had gone unclaimed since the draw on November 13th of last year. In fact, Kathryn lost the ticket and forgot all about it.

Kathryn: “I feel almost like I’ve been struck by lightening twice because first to win but to lose a ticket and that’s not a stretch in my case, but to lose a ticket and have the OLG find me is also pretty incredible.”

The OLG used a transaction data base to verify kathryn as the winner. Mike Hamel is the OLG’s Director of Corporate Investigations: “She was able to produce proof of purchase information a credit card bill that showed that she bought the lottery tickets for the amount of 16 dollars at the time and location where the winning ticket was sold.”

Rod Phillips is the OLG’s President: “We have store security video that clearly shows Ms. Jones purchasing the winning ticket at Shoppers Drug Mart in Cambridge.”

Both Kathryn and her husband Richard are engineers. They have two university aged children, and will use part of the fifty-million to pay for their education. They have no concrete plans yet for the rest of their winnings.

Richard: “Kind of overwelmed, it’s bizzarre. If they give us a ticket in January then I’m not responsible for holding it.”

The OLG policy is to publish the winnings and then wait thirty days for other claims to come forward. All claims have to be thoroughly investigated. The OLG also learned that Kathryn’s sister owns a retail outlet in Ottawa that sells lottery tickets. That was reviewed by a third party and no issues were found preventing the OLG from awarding the fifty-million dollars to Kathryn Jones in the new year.