Deana McClelland was in such disbelief when she found out she was $1 million richer she didn’t just double or triple check her ticket, but verified it five times in a row. McClelland told the B.C. Lottery Corporation she bought her winning ticket from a Family Foods on Arbuckle Street in B.C.’s Canal Flats. She found out she had won the $1-million prize after scanning her ticket via the BCLC’s Lotto app, although it took some convincing for the news to sink in. When the win first flashed upon the screen, her first thought was that there must have been “something wrong with the app,” she told the BCLC. “I checked again, then made my husband check on his phone. I even turned my phone off and checked it again when it restarted,” she said, adding how she had to drive to the store and have the win officially confirmed before she could accept it was genuine. After the news had finally sunk in, the couple divulged their win to their son. They called him while he was at work, and he responded with the same level of disbelief. “His reaction was, ‘Are you kidding me? Are you for real?’” recalled McClelland. “He was trying to keep his cool since he was at work. He called us back later and was so excited.” Landing the mighty win was such a surprise that McClelland hasn’t yet decided how she will spend the cash; she’s still in the process of recovering from the event itself. On how she feels to be a new millionaire, McClelland laughed that she’s still feeling a touch of nausea and is “dumbfounded, shocked and flabbergasted.” The odds of winning the main Lotto 6/49 jackpot of $5 million — which requires matching all six numbers drawn without using the bonus number — are approximately one in 14 million, according to the BCLC. So far in 2025, B.C. lottery players have redeemed more than $55 million in winnings from Lotto 6/49. The odds of winning a guaranteed prize of $1 million or more in the Gold Ball draw — as McClelland — did depend on the number of tickets sold.
