Mississauga woman receives Lotto Max ticket as tip and wins $500,000

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A Mississauga woman is $500,000 richer — and it’s all thanks to one of her customers.

Elizabeth Kielty, who works in the transportation service industry, received a gift from a customer as a tip for great service — a Lotto Max free play ticket.

Kielty, who has been playing the lottery with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. for decades, had never won big — until now.

“I set the ticket aside and completely forgot about it,” Kielty recounted while claiming her winnings at the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto.

It wasn’t until several weeks later that she remembered the ticket, so she went to the store to redeem the free play tip and got another Lotto Max ticket for the Aug. 13, 2024 draw.

The woman went back to the Petro-Canada on Burnhamthorpe Rd. to check her tickets a few days later and received the surprise of her life.

“When I had my ticket that came from the ‘tip’ validated, the lottery terminal froze, and the clerk told me my ticket was a big winner,” she recalled.

“I remained calm and collected — but I was in disbelief,” she continued. “A representative from OLG called the store, and I said, ‘Are you sure I won? I think you made a mistake!’”

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Kielty said she “spent the next 24 hours trying to understand how I’d won this prize. I was convinced there had been an error somewhere.”

She said realization only occurred in the middle of the night when she saw the details of her winning ticket posted on the OLG website.

“Clearly, I’m an evidence-based person,” she said with a laugh.

Kielty plans to upgrade her vehicle and invest the rest of her winnings while she determines her next move.

“I never expected something like this to happen to me,” she said. “It’s very surprising, but I’ll take it!”