Jackpot: How one Alberta woman turned $100 into $1,000,000 between laundry loads

Elianna Lev
·1 min read
Looking to kill time between laundry loads, Juanita Melenko headed to the nearby Vegreville Co-Op Gas Bar at 4906 – 51st Avenue and had her interest piqued by the new ULTIMATE instant tickets on sale, Melenko recalled in a Western Canada Lottery Corporation (WCLC) media release.

It seems that there could be some luck to be found in buying a lotto ticket when killing some time.

That’s exactly what happened to an Alberta woman who bought a $100 winning lotto ticket while passing the time between laundry loads. It’s a similar story to a B.C. woman who won a winning 649 lotto ticket while passing time at a grocery store in May, while waiting for a late friend for dinner.

Juanita Melenko purchased the $1-million winning ULTIMATE ticket at a gas station for $100. It’s the first lotto ticket priced at that price point to be released in the Western Canada lottery region. Launched last month, it allows lottery players the best odds at becoming a millionaire in any game offered by the Western Canada Lotto Corporation, with the odds of winning at 1 in 100,000.

Melenko said she initially thought she’d won $100,000, but a closer look made her realized she’d actually scored seven figures.

The newly minted millionaire plans to use her winnings to pay off her farm debt and buy a new vehicle.

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