Calgary lottery winners plan to retire with $15M Lotto Max windfall

Kathleen Polyak and Stuart Rudolph won $15 million on the May 24 Lotto Max draw. (WCLC handout)

A Calgary woman says she was taking a bath when she discovered she had won $15 million on a lottery ticket.

Kathleen Polyak says her partner Stuart Rudolph sent her a screenshot of a CTV News article saying someone in the city had won the May 26 Lotto Max jackpot – and asking her to check their ticket.

“I checked them and immediately asked him to meet me in the living room to check again with me—I thought I was mistaken,” Polyak explained in a news release.

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Both Polyak and Rudolph haven’t been sleeping much since discovering their win.

“It’s been a rollercoaster,” Polyak said. “I buy tickets because I like permission to daydream, I like imagining winning, but the reality is hard to believe.”

When it comes to plans for their windfall, Polyak says they’re going to retire, pay off some bills and play it by ear.

“Before you win, you have grandiose ideas of what you’ll do; now the reality is setting in that we need to be responsible and figure out what are the practical things we need.”

“I’m excited to be able to go to my goddaughter’s wedding overseas in France,” she added.

Rudolph, meanwhile, has his sights set on upgrading his garage.

“I can get more tools and build a super-garage, or ‘garage-mahal,’” he said, adding he’d also like to fix up his car.

Polyak and Rudolph purchased their winning Lotto Max ticket from Save-On Foods on Na’a Plaza S.W.