The 6 Biggest Lottery Wins in Canadian History
“From a Surrey man buying burger buns to two London, Ontario immigrants splitting $80M — these are the largest lottery payouts ever in Canada, where winnings are completely tax-free.”
Unlike the United States, lottery winnings in Canada are completely tax-free. When someone wins $80 million, they take home $80 million. This single fact makes Canadian lottery jackpots among the most valuable in the world relative to their advertised amount. Here are the six biggest verified single payouts in Canadian history, with the real stories behind each one.
#1: Greg S. & Krys P. — $80,403,285.40 (Lotto Max, December 30, 2025, London, Ontario). Two men who had both immigrated from Europe to London, Ontario in the 1990s became lifelong friends. Together, they won the $80 million Lotto Max jackpot plus a $403,285.40 second prize through a combination play option — setting the all-time record for Canada's largest lottery payout. Greg told OLG: 'I saw the words Big Winner and the number 80 and I didn't believe it at first. I checked it again and I saw the eight, the zeros and the commas, and I knew it was $80 million.' Their win was announced in April 2026.
#2: Justin Simporios — $80 Million (Lotto Max, May 9, 2025, Surrey, BC). The 35-year-old father was doing a routine grocery run to the Surrey Central Walmart for hamburger buns and cheese when he decided to grab a $12 Quick Pick ticket. That night, he checked the BCLC app with his wife and daughter nearby. 'I opened the app, and it says $80 million was won in Surrey,' he recalled at his press conference. 'So I made a joke: Hey baby, we're millionaires.' His wife told him to keep quiet so their daughter could sleep. When he scanned the ticket and confirmed it, he shouted and cried. 'Your daughter woke up,' his wife added. He wiped away tears at the Vancouver press conference: 'It's not sad tears, it's happy tears.' He plans to pay off his sister's medical school debt and help his mother retire early.
#3: David Hatt — $75 Million (Lotto Max, August 2025, Kingston, Ontario). One of the largest individual wins in Ontario history, claimed by a Kingston resident.
#4: Adlin Lewis — $70 Million (Lotto Max, January 2020, Brampton, Ontario). A 50-year-old credit risk manager from Brampton became the first Canadian to win the full $70 million Lotto Max jackpot. Lewis had been playing the lottery regularly for many years before his numbers finally matched.
#5: 20 Rona Store Employees — $55 Million (Lotto Max, July 17, 2015, Quebec). A group of 20 coworkers at a Rona hardware store in Quebec shared the $55 million prize — the first jackpot awarded under new rules allowing Lotto Max prizes to exceed $50 million. Each employee received $2.75 million. At the time, it was the second-largest Canadian lottery prize ever, behind a $63.4 million Lotto 6/49 drawing in April 2013.
#6: 17 Oil & Gas Workers — $54.3 Million (Lotto 6/49, October 26, 2005, Camrose, Alberta). A group of 17 oil and gas plant workers from Camrose, Alberta, pooled their money and hit what was then the largest lottery jackpot in Canadian history. The prize had been estimated at $40 million, but lottery fever across the country pushed rapid sales that inflated it to $54.3 million — a massive jump from the previous record of $37.8 million set by a Super 7 draw in 2002. One pattern emerges across nearly all these stories: the winners describe the same sequence of emotions — disbelief, rechecking the ticket multiple times, then shaking or crying. The human response to sudden, life-altering fortune is remarkably consistent.