They say “Luck be a Lady,” but perhaps it’s actually a couple from small-town Ontario. Imogene Blake and Anthony Baptiste of Barrie, ON recently defied the odds yet again, hitting big with Lotto 6/49 and taking home just shy of $60,000 late last year -- marking a third win for the married couple in the past decade.
“It felt amazing because we won this prize with numbers I’d chosen based on family birthdays,” Baptiste said. “No matter how big or small the prize, it feels special to win with numbers you picked yourself.”
This latest win brings their astonishing total to a whopping $1.25 million in prizes, with the couple having played the lottery together for over 30 years. Previously, the couple took home a quarter of a million playing Daily Keno back on New Year’s Eve 2015, then took home their biggest payday just years later in 2017, winning $1 million in November 2017. According to Yahoo News Canada, Blake, a nurse at the time, checked her million-dollar ticket ahead of a gruelling 12-hour shift. Needless to say, it surely became one of the most enjoyable shifts she’s had in her lifetime.
“She saw ‘Big Winner’ on the screen, but put the ticket away and continued to work,” Baptiste said in 2017. Later, on her break, she used the OLG lottery app to give the ticket a proper look. “I counted the zeros and saw the commas — and there it was — one million dollars!”
Making good use of the winnings
With their winnings, Blake and Baptiste have been able to explore Canada from coast to coast, while finding themselves with a healthy bit of freedom to live the life they want.
“We were at home when I scanned our ticket on the OLG app,” said Blake. “I brought the ticket to Anthony to share the good news, and we went to the store the next day to have our ticket validated,” adding that they plan to vacation with their winnings.
The couple has done plenty of travelling with their winnings, sharing in 2015 that they were headed abroad for Baptiste’s 60th birthday, then their dreams of seeing Canada for all its beauty in 2017.
“Imogene’s dream is to head west and see Vancouver and my dream is to head east and explore the Maritimes,” said Baptiste in 2017.
And, of course, while it’s no doubt nice to have the means to travel like that, the added benefits of a lift without debt certainly help make things a little bit easier as well.
“Winning the lottery means financial freedom — no more mortgage, no more car payments and more independence to do what we want, when we want,” said Blake.
You can play the lottery on one of the more popular online casinos, OLG.
