Lotto fever: Big Southwestern Ontario winners who made headlines

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It was the $5-million mystery that gripped people across Southwestern Ontario: Who bought the winning lottery ticket that nearly hit its one-year expiry date before being cashed in? The question appears to have a happy answer. But high-profile lottery mega-wins don’t always have such positive endings. LFP’s Brian Williams looks back on other fascinating Southwestern Ontario cases

$5M TICKET SOLD IN WOODSTOCK. BUT WHO BOUGHT IT?

On April 17, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission urged the person who purchased a winning May 4, 2024, Lotto 6/49 ticket in Woodstock to come forward before the $5-million uncashed prize expiry date, which was mere weeks away.

Just days after the Easter weekend, a claimant contacted the provincial agency, spokesperson Tony Bitonti said, noting the organization was “anxiously” waiting to hear the story behind why a person almost missed the one-year window to cash their winning ticket.

The story drew massive attention across the region. The winner was revealed last week to be Connie Christie of the small Oxford County community of Beachville, who is relishing the win with her husband and children.

Christie told lottery officials she typically checks her tickets monthly to see if she’s won, but “sometimes forgets,” and had recently found a “small stack of tickets she hadn’t checked yet.”

Christie said she plans to retire, and wants her husband to do the same.

RAY SOBESKI

The long-awaited ticket cashing may call to mind another high-profile case from nearly 20 years ago, when Ray Sobeski of the Oxford County community of Princeton won big and drew national attention. But the story took a very different turn from there.

Sobeski cashed a $30-million Lotto Super 7 ticket just 12 days before it was set to expire, and three months after he was granted a divorce from former spouse Nynna Ionson.

They got married in 1998 but had an unorthodox living arrangement for a married couple. They lived in separate homes because Sobeski wasn’t interested in a relationship with Ionson’s children.

“I always had to keep me and my kids separate. He wants me, not my kids,” she told The Free Press in 2004.

Ionson, a mother of four, had been relying on donated food and living in subsidized housing even after Sobeski turned in the ticket.

One night, the couple who lived in separate residences spent the night together in a Woodstock hotel room, which wasn’t uncommon. Sobeski gave Ionson money to pick up a bottle of water and food but suspected something was amiss when she attempted to return the change to her husband.

“He let me keep the change. I’m not used to that. He pays for everything and gets back all the money that’s in my pocket,” she said.

The next day Ionson learned Sobeski had become Canada’s biggest lottery winner ever, noting Sobeski was “intensely private.”

The situation was also complicated because Sobeski had served Ionson separation papers more than a year before The Free Press story on April 4 2004, which was three days after Sobeski turned in the winning ticket, but said their relationship continued thereafter.

Ionson also told The Free Press at the time that when she questioned why Sobeski didn’t tell her about the lottery ticket, his response was: “I didn’t know how you would take it,” she recalled.

“Thirty million dollars and me. Why wouldn’t you want to have both?” Ionson said.

Ionson later sued Sobeski, claiming she was duped by her ex-husband because he didn’t inform her he was holding the winning lottery ticket. After a lengthy legal dispute, a confidential out-of-court settlement was reached in 2009.

WINNING AND MOVING OUT

A $6.1-million Lotto 6/49 ticket – half of the $12-million Sept. 20, 2017, jackpot – received media attention due to a dispute between former Chatham common law couple Maurice Thibeault and Denise Robertson.

Robertson sued Thibeault for $3 million, claiming the pair had purchased lottery tickets as a couple, and “had a longstanding agreement to share any winnings,” according to a 2018 Windsor Star story. Thibeault denied any such agreement existed.

Claiming Thibeault had told her the former couple’s ticket wasn’t a winner, Robertson alleges she returned home from work one day to find her live-in boyfriend had moved all of his things out.

In January 2018, OLG paid out $3.07-million to Thibeault, withholding the disputed half of the winnings, with the agency wanting the court to take control of the contested funds until the legal battle’s conclusion.

“This is a classic she said, he said dispute,” Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. lawyer James Doris said on Aug. 20, 2018 in a Windsor court, noting it was “clear (that) the real fight” was between the former couple.

Richard Pollock, the attorney who represented Thibeault, told The Free Press last week that “the matter was resolved on a confidential basis by both parties” in 2022.

WAS THE WINNING TICKET STOLEN?

In 2008, 81-year-old retired carpenter Gerald Moore sued his 59-year-old wife Patricia Moore, claiming she stole his winning $3.5-million Lotto 6/49 ticket, had her daughter cash it in, then began divorce proceedings.

Allegations contained in the lawsuit asserted Bobbie-Jo Arnold, Patricia’s Moore’s daughter from a previous marriage, cashed the ticket. Gerald Moore claimed the ticket – which he said he didn’t sign – was one he purchased for the draw, and that his wife must have taken it off the nightstand in his bedroom.

Patricia Moore said Arnold gave her $1.5-million of the winnings and that she shared the money with Gerald.

Patricia Moore said Gerald seemed content “until his children caught wind of the lottery winnings,” a 2008 Windsor Star story noted, adding Gerald moved out of the house and got a court order to freeze Patricia’s bank accounts along with those of her two daughters, grandson and their spouses.

Gerald Moore also alleged Patricia tampered with his heart and blood pressure medications, rendering him “physically, emotionally and psychologically incapable of appreciating the nature and consequences of the events,” as per a statement of claim filed in Superior Court.

Later, Patricia Moore and Arnold faced fraud and other charges stemming from the alleged theft of the winning lottery ticket.

Arnold’s lawyer, Michael O’Hearn, said it was his understanding a settlement had been reached in the civil case against Moore and Arnold, leading the criminal charges to be dropped, The Windsor Star reported in 2010.

bwilliams@postmedia.com

@BrianWatLFPress

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