“I never dreamt it would be possible”: Atlantic Lottery players are winning every day, and you could be next

It was Derrek Barton’s birthday when he stopped at his local convenience store in Harvey, New Brunswick to buy milk and his usual Lotto 6/49 tickets—a weekly routine he didn’t think much of at the time.

That is until a few days later, rumours began to circulate about someone in York County winning a $1-million prize. Barton still hadn’t checked his ticket (after all, what are the chances?) and three days passed before Barton’s partner Jean finally pushed him to go to the store and get them checked.

Scanning the tickets in front of Barton, the lady at the service counter froze. “Oh my goodness,” she said, the colour draining from her face. The man standing in front of her was the $1-million winner.

“I never dreamt it would be possible, it hasn’t really even sunk in,” said Barton, still processing the fact that he won not a thousand, not ten thousand, but one million dollars. “I know it’s real, I’m just over-the-top happy.”

Barton’s story is one of just many remarkable stories told by Atlantic Lottery winners across Canada.

Offering a variety of different games—from the classic Lotto 6/49 to Oceanside Bingo—with a wide range of prizes, anyone who purchases a ticket could be a winner. In fact, Atlantic Lottery reports that nearly 900 Canadians won a prize of $10,000 or more in 2022-2023, along with thousands of smaller prizes that were handed out throughout the year.

Though the dream of winning big is always exciting, there’s another reason to play with Atlantic Lottery and that is to support local communities. 100% of lottery profit generated by Atlantic Lottery each year stays in the region to fund important services essential to all that live here.

Last year, the organization returned $492.2 million in profit to the Atlantic Canadian governments and sponsored over 100 community festivals and events that have important cultural, social and economic impacts across the region like Halifax Pride, the St. John’s African Roots Festival, the DiverseCity Festival in P.E.I. and the Kent County Agricultural Fair “Expo Kent” in New Brunswick and Sainte-Marie-de-Kent. Atlantic Lottery also regularly donates to foundations like United Way, the Red Cross and several other local charities in Atlantic communities.

Not only are they committed to supporting Atlantic Canadian communities, Atlantic Lottery also places a lot of importance on the individual player.

Atlantic Lottery has a strong and long-standing commitment to promoting healthy play. Understanding the risks associated with gambling, the company believes in educating their players and providing the necessary tools to help ensure play remains for fun and entertainment.Players must agree to a Healthy Play Policy when playing on alc.ca and resources such as the PlayWise Rating tool help players better understand their individual play by providing a confidential risk rating based on their activity. A new messaging tool will also be used to send confidential messages directly to players, providing useful observations and tips to keep their play healthy.

“As a company highly committed to healthy, sustainable play, it’s very exciting to use new advancements in technology to allow us to do more than ever before to support our players in this way,” Atlantic Lottery President and CEO, Patrick Daigle stated on the website.

“We will continue to follow these trends and new technologies to ensure Atlantic Lottery remains ahead of the curve as a leader in the healthy play space, all while continuing to provide an elite experience to our players.”

By prioritizing healthy play and ensuring a sustainable future—all while giving back 100 per cent of profit to benefit all Atlantic Canadians—there are so many wins we can all be proud of. At the end of the day, that’s what Atlantic Lottery is all about.

This content has been developed and paid for by Atlantic Lottery without involvement from The Coast’s editorial department.