Group of 52 people claims million-dollar Lotto Max prize

Fifty-two friends are walking into the weekend with a little extra cash in their pockets.

The August 5 MAXIMILLIONS prize from the Lotto Max draw has the crew making history as the largest group in Western Canada to claim a lottery win.

Ashley Sieben has organized the tickets for the group of friends for many years, and said he was thrilled and shocked when she found the winning numbers. The winning ticket was purchased by Sieben at the Langenburg Petro Canada gas station.

“I’m just so happy it finally paid off,” Sieben said. “We’ve been doing this for four years, and it finally paid off.”

Sieben said he was heading to work when he started to receive phone calls from a member of the group telling him to check the tickets. As soon as he arrived at work, Sieben said he and a co-worker took a close look at the tickets.

“We checked the tickets, and I was like ‘Oh my God,’” said Sieben.

After making some calls to other people in the group telling them they had won, Sieben said he called his wife, telling her to drive to Yorkton in order to buy a safe to protect the ticket.

The group originally began playing the lottery four years ago, with forty members playing together whenever the jackpot reaches over $50 million. Over the years, the group of friends has grown until they reached 52 members.

“I’d say 80 per cent of the original people were in this one, so it’s pretty sweet to win with them,” said Sieben.

The group’s members are from communities all across Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Sieben said that he’s going to put some of the winnings into home renovations and his wife’s student loans. Some of the money will be put into the bank for a camping trip to British Columbia next summer.

“It feels pretty cool when you got that cheque in hand and your group starts showing up in person. It’s crazy. It’s very crazy,” said Sieben.

The group will split the prize evenly, with each person taking home $19,230.76.