Yellowknife (Mar 03/06) - Yellowknife may soon find out if luck does indeed come in threes.

In the last two months, two Yellowknifers won $100,000 and $250,000 respectively after purchasing tickets from the lotto booth at the Reddi-Mart on Old Airport Road.

Both Juana Venezuela and Steve Millar purchased the Extra option on their tickets.

The move paid off big.

For Venezuela, it meant a cool $100,000 prize. "I'll pay my bills and save some for my kids for school," Venezuela said.

"And we're going on holidays back home," she said of a planned trip to her homeland in the Philippines.

On Jan. 22, Venezuela purchased a Pick 3 ticket with the same numbers she always chooses, with the Extra added on.

Her husband Melchor, as well, was very happy with the big win, she said. Last year, he won $1,000 in a lotto prize, she said.

Millar brought home $250,000 after purchasing a 6/49 Quik Pick ticket with the Extra on Dec. 31. Millar could not be contacted by Yellowknifer, but in a press release issued by the Western Canada Lottery Corporation, the father of four said he wanted to pay off his house and bills and save the rest. "It's a quarter of a million dollars - that's a lot of money," he said.

Kevin van Egdom, a spokesperson with the lottery corporation, said in the past 10 years, there have been 34 winners of $10,000 or more, 20 of those from Yellowknife.

"Since the beginning of 2005, there were 12 winners of $10,000 or more, 10 of those were from Yellowknife."