By Chris Brown

Hatter $1-million richer

Aug 24, 2021 | 4:47 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – What she thought was just another email scam turned out to be a million-dollar windfall for one Medicine Hat resident.

Lesley Girard got the life-changing email from PlayAlberta.ca.

“I saw an email telling me I had won a prize before I went to bed, but I didn’t think much of it because it was so late,” she said. “When I got up in the morning and looked into it a bit further, I couldn’t believe it.”

“I thought it must be a scam,” she laughed. “I mean, who gets an email that says you’ve won a million dollars?!”

She says she and her husband plan to enjoy retirement a little more thanks to the win.

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“We’ve talked about taking a couple vacations when it’s safe to travel again, so we’re looking forward to doing that.”

“We’re also hoping to spend some of our winters in Mexico,” she said.

Girard bought her LottoMax ticket on PlayAlberta.ca and is one of the first major winners on the platform, which launched on May 20. Girard won on the June 15 draw.

Girard’s winning ticket was a Free Play she had won on the game’s previous draw. She won one of the 64 MAXMILLIONS prizes drawn on the June 15 draw by matching the numbers 2, 3, 4, 20, 35, 37 and 43.