The odds of winning the Lotto Max jackpot are one in 33,294,800 per $5 play. Compare that to the odds of being struck by lightning which is 1 in 56,439 and you’ll understand why some experts say Lotto Max is harder to win than any other Canada lottery. And yet despite those odds, a Quebec man from the Mauricie area has now won multi-million jackpots twice in the past ten years.
This past week, Michel Bordeleau who was previously one of 11 winners for a $25 million jackpot back in 2010, took home $15 million in the June 16 Lotto Max draw. And if that wasn’t enough, Bordeleau purchased both winning tickets at the same store. What are the odds?
According to Harvard statistics professor Dr. Mark Glickman, having previously won the lottery does not increase or decrease the chance of winning the lottery in the future.
“If someone already wins the lottery, then the chance that the person wins the lottery a second time will be exactly the same as the probability they win the lottery if they had not previously won the lottery before,” Glickman says.
In other words, the odds of all lotteries are independent.
That said, it is still impressive that Bordeleau has so far taken home 2.5 million in 2010 and now an additional $15 million with the Lotto Max.
“I stood there frozen when I realized I was winning for a second time, it's just unbelievable,” Bordeleau said, adding that he checked the ticket several times and consulted his wife before he came to terms with the fact that he’d won again.
This is also a big win for the store where he bought the ticket. The retailer will get a 1% commission of $150,000.