‘We sat there dumbfounded:’ Regina man claims province’s biggest lottery jackpot

It’s no joke to suggest that April Fool’s Day will forever hold special meaning for Regina’s Dale McEwen.

On April 1, McEwen and his family were heading west on a ski trip in B.C. They stopped at a Co-op gas bar in Dunmore, Alta., and McEwen bought a ticket for that night’s Lotto Max draw.

The next night, McEwen checked his ticket — and discovered he had won the $70-million jackpot. It’s the largest lottery prize ever won in Western Canada.

“It hits you and you realize how much you have and what you can do … It’s just mind-blowing,” he said during Tuesday’s cheque presentation at the Hotel Saskatchewan.

After checking his ticket, McEwen immediately told his wife, Christie.

“We were trying to figure out if it was real,” McEwen said. “We checked again using the app on her phone.

“We sat there dumbfounded for a while. We didn’t know what to do, so I signed the ticket right away and then we called the phone number on the back.”

McEwen matched all seven of the numbers for the draw: 7, 10, 18, 29, 38, 43 and 50. According to the Western Canada Lottery Corporation, the odds of matching all seven Lotto Max numbers are 1 in 33 million per play.

The $70-million prize exceeded the previous Saskatchewan record by $10 million.

In August 2016, a woman from Neville won a $60-million Lotto Max prize. Last October, a man from Saskatoon won $55 million in the Lotto Max draw and, in January of this year, a Saskatoon man took home $50 million on Lotto Max.

From Oct. 2 to April 1, Saskatchewan residents have won $200 million in lottery jackpots.

McEwen and his family cut their trip short and returned to Saskatchewan to claim their prize.

“I can’t even describe it,” McEwen said. “Dreaming about winning and actually winning are two very different feelings. You think you know what it would feel like, but when it’s in your hands, your mind will not stop and you can’t even sleep.”

He laid out some of the plans he has for his prize.

“We’re just going to use it to help family, do some travelling and we’re going to upgrade a few things,” he said. “It is stressful — but not a bad stress.”

Christie spoke at Tuesday’s media conference and agreed it has been quite the shock.

“Lacking sleep is one thing … I think we’ve kind of taken turns. He doesn’t sleep, then I do,” she said.

For her, it’s tough to nail down what they’ll spend the money on.

“You start thinking about everything. I don’t know; you can’t even describe the feeling of it … What do you do?” she said.

“We (have) some little things that we want to do, but no big plans. We’re pretty fortunate anyway, so (we’ll) just do some things to try and enjoy life — maybe travel a bit more and help out our families a bit … just sort of play it by ear.”

Life’s getting easier for Dale in one big way: He’s quitting his job as a trucker.

“It’s going to be an early exit for that. I’ve been doing that for 28 years, so it’s definitely time to get out of that,” he said.

At first, Christie thought Dale was simply joking around when he told her about the ticket, especially considering that he won the prize on April Fool’s Day.

“It was a weird one,” she said.