Man wins $46 million in Canada, but doesn’t tell his wife right away

A Quebec man hit the jackpot last week, winning $46 million playing Lotto 6/49.

Claude Boucher, from the Bois-Francs region in Centre-du-Québec, won the gold ball jackpot in the Aug. 27 draw and celebrated his win on Thursday, a news release from Loto-Québec said.

Boucher bought the winning ticket on the Loto-Québec gaming website.

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He has been playing the same numbers on Lotto 6/49 for years, but it was the gold ball draw (which automatically generates players’ numbers), that won him the jackpot.

Lotto 6/49 features both a classic draw with a fixed jackpot of $5 million in which players can choose their numbers, as well as a gold ball draw in which players can win a growing jackpot (or a $1 million prize.)

Boucher was looking through his emails the day after the draw when he learned he was a winner.

“I was scrolling quickly and I thought, ‘$46,000 isn’t too bad! But what are all those zeros?” he recalled.

“Oh, it’s $46,000,000!’”

He double checked by looking at the results on the Loto-Québec website and on his online gaming account. Then he realized he won the massive prize.

But Boucher didn’t immediately tell his wife.

“He waited a few hours before announcing the news,” the Loto-Québec release said.

After holding off, eventually he did break the news to her and the two shared “an emotional moment they’ll never forget.”

In terms of what he plans to do with the winnings, Boucher said he’s thinking about retiring earlier than planned, but he doesn’t want to leave his bosses in the lurch.

He’s also planning on treating his loved ones and is thinking of a trip to Switzerland, where he and his wife lived in the 1980s.