'Chase the Ace' winner uses jackpot to help son become fisherman

Donelda MacAskill, 62, of Englistown, N.S., center, celebrates with volunteers after flipping over the ace of spades and winning more than $1.7 million in Inverness, Nova Scotia on Saturday Oct. 4, 2015. (Darren Pittman / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

ENGLISHTOWN, N.S. -- A Nova Scotia woman who won $1.7 million in a local lottery that triggered a province-wide "Chase the Ace" craze says her son has been able to follow his dream of becoming a lobster fisherman because of her winnings.

Donelda MacAskill won the jackpot last October in a game of Chase the Ace that drew tens of thousands of people to the tiny Cape Breton community of Inverness.

The 61-year-old woman from Englishtown, N.S., said since her big win, she's helped her 38-year-old son Kenzie follow in his father's footsteps to attain a lobster fishing license of his own.

"The first year he was fishing with us about 18 years ago, he had been on the boat about three weeks and he pushed the trap over the side and he turned to me and said, 'How much longer is dad going to fish'," said MacAskill with a laugh. "To get into lobster fishing, it's extremely expensive. So this helped a lot."

Chase the Ace is like a 50-50 draw in which players buy numbered tickets for about five dollars each. The winner gets a percentage of the total ticket sales and a bigger jackpot if they pull the ace of spades from a deck of cards that gets smaller with each successive draw.

MacAskill said she also bought a tractor for her husband John, and a mini home for her youngest son Kirk.

But for the most part, life is much the same as before her Chase the Ace win, said MacAskill.

"I still shop in the same places that I shopped before and I'll be getting my boat ready soon. I'll be doing the boat tours this summer the same as I've done the last 21 years," said MacAskill, referring to her puffin boat tour business on the Cabot Trail. "It just doesn't make sense to fly to Paris to pick up toilet paper."

MacAskill said she wasn't prepared for the notoriety that comes with winning a $1.7 million lottery.

"I'm totally amazed that even after the six months, there's basically no where I can go that somebody doesn't walk up to me and ask me if I'm the one that won," said MacAskill.

The Chase the Ace craze has captivated many Nova Scotians and now there's another big jackpot up for grabs in Sydney.

But the lottery there has faced some challenges in recent weeks, prompting the provincial government to step in as a local non-profit organization and legion grapples with a jackpot north of a million dollars.

A ticket error at the draw on March 12 yielded two winners, forcing the Horizon Achievement Centre and the Ashby legion to pay both winners and forfeit their profits from that night's draw -- roughly $230,000, said Stephen Tobin, who works for Horizon and is organizing the Chase the Ace event.

The ticket error forced the province's alcohol and gaming division to postpone the lottery until organizers can ensure there will be no duplicate tickets at future draws

Tobin said he's confident the conditions will be met and the lottery will go forward on Saturday.

As for whether MacAskill will be buying tickets for the Sydney draw, she says she hasn't made up her mind yet.

"I like the excitement of it," said MacAskill, adding that she has bought Chase the Ace tickets since her big win and even won a $377 draw at one point, which she donated to a local food bank.

The province says 258 Chase the Ace licenses were issued in 2015. It says the lotteries started in 2012 and have been growing in popularity since then, but it didn't start tracking Chase the Ace licenses specifically until last year.