$1 million Gold Ball win for Bowmanville, Ontario man

An email notification on his phone interpreted by his wife that he’d won $1,000 turned out to be a whole more for Bowmanville’s newest millionaire.

Dwaine Berment had set up a lottery subscription on the OLG app and it was his wife who spotted the news first.

“It was a message from OLG saying I’d won big,” Berment, 42, said while visiting the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto to claim his winnings. “My wife checked the email and initially thought I’d won $1,000.”

Rather than spoil the surprise, she waited for him to see the message for himself. “She didn’t tell me right away because she wanted me to get excited on my own,” he said. “But I didn’t check my emails for the next two days!”

That’s when his wife gave him a little nudge and he found out he had won $1 million in the Gold Ball draw on April 23.

“She said, ‘check your email – I think you have something to tell me,’” he said with a chuckle. “I was so confused. Then, I opened my inbox and discovered I’d won big! At first, I was in disbelief and thought it had to be a scam. I opened the OLG app to confirm the win was real.”

“I was shocked!”

With his windfall, the father-of-four plans to invest for his children’s future and enjoy a well-deserved vacation. “There’s so much I can do with this money. This win will provide me with greater financial stability and take some weight off my shoulders.”

LOTTO 6/49 offers players a chance to win two multi-million dollar jackpots every Wednesday and Saturday, for the same $3 per play.

The Classic draw offers a fixed $5 million jackpot for every draw, while the Gold Ball draw guarantees a $1 million prize, or the growing jackpot that starts at $10 million and can exceed $60 million.

The winning ticket was purchased on OLG.ca.