A West Nipissing councillor has won big with Encore for the second time in his life, this time collecting one million dollars in the Aug. 26 Daily Grand draw.
Leo Malette purchased his million-dollar winning ticket here in town, for just a buck.
“I was coming back from Niagara Falls with my wife and we stopped at Metro to get something for dinner,” he says. “I had won $10 on the Daily Grand and a free ticket. So, I added the Encore on the free ticket and that’s what I won on the Encore, off of $1.”
Malette was in disbelief when he went to check his numbers online early the following morning. He went back to Metro to self-check his ticket and sure enough, he had hit the jackpot. Not wanting to cause a scene, he arranged to check his ticket at Stop & Shop after they closed at 1 p.m. on the Sunday. Malette says the machine stopped and shortly after, OLG called to congratulate him.
Because of pandemic restrictions, it took a while to arrange a time when the family could go down to Toronto and collect their winnings, so they had a secret to keep for quite some time.
“It was almost a month until I could get to OLG,” says Malette. “All my family knew, my kids and grandkids, but they never said anything. And of course, Marie-Paule (Breton) and the employees at Stop & Shop knew but they never said a word, which is amazing. I really appreciate that.”
Now that the word is out, Malette jokes that his family has grown substantially.
“I’ve got a lot of relatives now,” he laughs. “Everyone is calling me Uncle Leo.”
