Hamilton grandmother spins wheel, wins $500,000

Published April 5, 2023 at 1:27 pm

Carmela Pacenza the bigger spin olg wheel lottery lotto hamilton stoney creek 500000
A grandmother from Hamilton spun a wheel and is now celebrating her $500,000 lottery win with friends and family.

A Hamilton woman is $500,000 richer after playing the Bigger Spin instant lottery game from OLG.

Carmela Pacenza, a grandmother from Stoney Creek, won $30 playing the same game, and decided to use part of her winnings to purchase the ticket that won the in-store spin.

“When it landed on Bigger Spin, I asked the clerk what that meant, and she told me I won big, and it was a minimum prize of $500,000,” she shared while at the OLG Prize Centre. “I was shocked. I couldn’t keep a thought in my head. I knew this was going to be life-changing.”

Pacenza said it still didn’t feel real when she got to the Prize Centre to spin the wheel.

“When I saw that it landed on $500,000, I hugged my family and celebrated with them. This whole experience has been fantastic.”

Carmela Pacenza the bigger spin olg wheel lottery lotto hamilton stoney creek 500000

The retiree said she feels free to enjoy her life on her terms now.

“It’s a wash of calm. I feel like I have a bag of money,” Pacenza laughed.

She plans to invest her winnings and enjoy time with her family.

“I’m thinking about a family trip to celebrate together,” she concluded.

The winning ticket was purchased at Fortinos on Upper Centennial in Stoney Creek.

The Bigger Spin instant game is $10 per play and combines popular scratch play with prizes revealed in-store by an animated spinning wheel on the lottery terminal screen. Like Pacenza, players can also win an in-person spin at the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto.

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