‘My heart started pounding': Etobicoke consultant wins $65 million in Lotto Max jackpot
When Mohit Sharma scanned his Lotto Max ticket and saw the words 'Big Winner' flash across his phone screen, he could not believe it — so he put on his shoes and went for a walk.
Then he came back, scanned it again, and saw the same thing.
Sharma, a consultant from Etobicoke, is Ontario's newest multimillionaire, winning $65 million in October's Lotto Max jackpot, a game he began playing regularly in 2020 during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
What began as a small weekly ritual to have something to look forward to during the lockdowns has paid off, he said in a news release from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation.
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Over the past five years, Sharma has been purchasing Lotto Max and Lotto 6-49 tickets with a set budget, always adding Encore and relying on Quick Pick numbers.
'I don't pick the numbers, so, knowing that a random number that the lottery computer picked for me the winner — and my name was on that ticket — is just unbelievable!' he said.
After hearing the news that the winning ticket was sold in Etobicoke, Sharma pulled a few tickets from a drawer and scanned them using the OLG app.
'I couldn't believe it and my heart started pounding,' he said. 'My phone screen lit up as the words 'Big Winner' flashed across the screen I thought to myself, 'I guess that person I heard about on the news was me!''
Instead of calling his family right away, Sharma waited until everyone was home so he could share the news face-to-face.
'To say they were shocked is an understatement,' he said. 'It was an emotional moment with lots of trembling hands and elevated heart rates all around.'
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With the new-found financial freedom, Sharma says he is ready to make his dream of riding trains across the globe a reality. He has long admired the world's most iconic railways and intends to experience all of them, from the high-speed Shinkansen in Japan to the Indian Pacific that goes from Sydney to Perth, Australia.
While the opportunity to ride trains across the world is what Sharma says 'will excite me the most!' the happiness he is sharing with his family is the best part of winning the jackpot.
The next Lotto Max jackpot draw is Friday, with an estimated $20-million payout.
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