A Nanaimo man and his family are pretty much set after a big scratch ticket win.
Matt Deri, a 38-year-old truck driver, recently won $675,000 playing Set for Life. He said he would buy the odd Lotto Max ticket when the jackpot got especially high, but had been buying scratch tickets for a few months, always buying the Set for Life ones.
“I liked the idea of set for life,” he said.
Deri bought the winning ticket at the Gas N Go on Jingle Pot Road while out doing errands.
He scratched the barcode and scanned the ticket with his phone while sitting in his vehicle, and heard the chime that signified his win. He scratched the rest of the ticket and discovered the magnitude of his lotto win.
“It’s still processing. I thought it was fake of something. I just kind of sat in the car looking around expecting a camera crew to pop out saying, ‘you’ve been punked’ or something,” Deri said. “I called my wife and she didn’t believe me, so we switched to FaceTime on the phone and I showed her the ticket. She said, ‘why are you still at the store? Come home.'”
After doing some research, Deri opted for a lump-sum prize rather than the monthly Set for Life payouts. Deri said the family will go to Disneyland once it’s safe to do so; in the meantime, he bought his boys new Lego sets. The family is planning to buy a new home.
For more information about playing the lotto, visit PlayNow.com. For information about gambling responsibly, visit GameSense.com.
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