Cross-country move ends in $1.3M LIGHTNING LOTTO win for new Calgarians!

Ge Ann Bareng is officially the first millionaire LIGHTNING LOTTO winner and the largest in the west! 

The Calgary winner won a whopping $1,360,265.70 on the instant win jackpot and could not believe her eyes. 

Bareng purchased her LIGHTNING LOTTO ticket from Save-On Foods at 70-3915 51 Street NW in Calgary. She won her prize by matching the five numbers selected in the July 16 LIGHTNING LOTTO draw: 7, 26, 28, 43, 45.  

“I bought [the ticket] while I was out shopping with my kids,” she explained. “We had just moved to Calgary from Montreal and were looking to furnish a new apartment, now we will be looking at buying a house!” 

“When we looked at the numbers, we couldn’t believe how many zeroes we saw,” she laughed, joking: “It took us three days to figure it out!” 

The story ends with a million-dollar win but it starts much further back, as the family drove together across the country toward their new home. 

“We stopped at every gas station on the way to Calgary to buy a lottery ticket,” explained Bareng. “We were trying to change our lives with a move to Alberta, and here we are with a life-changing win after not even two full weeks in Calgary!” 

“If we’d won in Winnipeg, we might have stayed there,” joked her husband.  

The family is most excited about their fresh start in Calgary and what it means for their kids. 

“We now have the funds to send them to university in the future,” Bareng said. “I knew I made the right choice to move to Calgary, but now we can reset our lives here.” 

“We’re going to pay off our debt, buy a house and a car and put the rest away for our kids’ education,” she added.

Download the full release and winner's photo below.