$40M lotto winner from Calgary didn’t have ticket to check

CALGARY – A Calgary man didn’t even know which lottery he’d won when he got a call telling him he was $40 million richer.

Tom Crist was the winner of the Lotto Max jackpot on May 3, but he didn’t have a ticket to check to discover his windfall.

Crist plays both Lotto Max and Lotto 6-49 by subscription, meaningplayers can pay for their selections for up to a year at a time.

Subscribers’ numbers are checked for them by the Western Canada Lottery Corp. after each draw and they are automatically paid any prizes won.

In the case of any prize over $10,000, subscribers receive atelephone call first.

Crist says he never expected a call telling him he’d won the largest lotto prize ever in Calgary.

“I wasn’t even sure which game I’d won on, or what the numbers were,” he said after his prize was announced Monday. “I’ve paid for the subscription when I get the renewal notice every year, and then I just file it.

“Sometimes I’d get a cheque for $10 or $20, but I never expected this.”

Crist’s prize is also the largest won on a lottery subscription within the Prairie-North lotteries region.