Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, January 7, 2008

YELLOWKNIFE - NWT residents seem to be on a bit of a winning streak.

Five more major wins over $10,000 have been announced by the Western Canada Lottery Corporation.

Topping the list is Fort Simpson's Gail Villeneuve, who won $100,000 on the Extra.

Gail Villeneuve, of Fort Simpson, won $100,000 playing Extra.

Rodney Johnson, of Hay River, won $50,000 on Western 6/49.

Roy Hansen, of Hay River, won $44,372.50 on Super 7, while Ann Lobb claimed $20,000 playing PayDay.

Finally, Fort Simpson's Allan Cli collected $16,288.80 on Pro-Line.

All the wins came between Sept. 29 and Nov. 28.

"It's quite a little winning streak," said Andrea Marantz, a corporation spokesperson.

The latest wins are in addition to prizes this fall of $1 million in Yellowknife and $11 million in Fort Smith.

Fort Simpson's Villeneuve, a finance operations manager, matched the last six Extra digits to win $100,000.

At first, the 50-year-old used a self-check machine, which indicated she had a major winning ticket.

However, she was checking more than one ticket and mixed up which ticket had won. She crumbled up the winning ticket and threw it in the garbage before going to the teller. When they realized the mistake, they retrieved the ticket from the garbage.

"So every time I go in there that's the big joke," Villeneuve said. "They watch me."

Besides paying bills and investing a little, she doesn't have plans for her windfall.

Johnson bought his $50,000 winning Western 6/49 ticket in High Level for the Oct. 20 draw.

Back in Hay River, the truck driver checked his ticket at a lottery retailer.

"The clerk informed me I had won a substantial amount of money," he recalled. "It was quite a surprise. Everybody in the store got excited when they heard I'd won $50,000."

The 65-year-old father of three plans to pay bills and buy a used camper van.

Hansen won on the Nov. 2 Super 7 draw.

"I've had a feeling for the past three or four months that I was going to win," the heavy equipment operator said. "I had been wishing to win. I guess I got what I wished for."

The 60-year-old father of one matched six of seven main numbers, plus a bonus.

Hansen plans to use the $44,372.50 to pay off debts.

Lobb, a finance and administration officer, checked the lottery corporation website after the Nov. 28 PayDay draw and wrote down the winning numbers.

"I initially thought I'd written down the numbers I had," she said. "It didn't occur to me that I had really won."

A co-worker checked the numbers and realized Lobb had won $20,000.

"I never thought I would win anything like this, I just don't have that kind of luck," she said.

The mother of three will use most of the windfall for home renovations.

Cli, 39, was surprised when he accurately guessed all six games on his Sept. 29 Pro-Line ticket.

"I didn't believe it, so I asked my wife to double check," he said.

Cli had planned to wager on hockey, but at the last minute switched to football.

The father of four plans to use his winnings to buy a van for the family and pay bills.