Vancouver man plans to travel, buy new car after $1M lottery win

Lottery winner Hugh McNicoll is pictured in this handout photo from BCLC.

A Vancouver resident is now $1 million richer after a lucky Lotto 6/49 win.

Hugh McNicoll got the windfall on the guaranteed prize from the Gold Ball Draw on July 10, which requires an exact ten-digit match.

The winner was at the drug store when he found out. “I was at Shoppers Drug Mart and thought the machine was broken,” he said in a B.C. Lottery Corporation media release issued earlier this week. “I had to keep checking it and eventually downloaded the app.”

He first shared the news with his wife, and bought her flowers to celebrate.

McNicoll plans to spend the money on a “big vacation” and a new car.

He told the BCLC winning the lottery felt “shocking, then exciting and then fun.”

According to the lottery corporation, British Columbians have won more than $48 million on tickets so far this year.

The winning ticket was bought in Delta at the Town Pantry on Ladner Trunk Road and 96 Street.

The odds of winning on the Gold Ball Draw vary depending on how many tickets were purchased. The odds of winning the top Lotto 6/49 prize of $5 million are one in 13,983,816, according to the BCLC.