Canada's LOTTO fever has broken! $50 million LOTTO MAX Jackpot won last night

WINNIPEG, June 26 /CNW/ - The $50 million LOTTO MAX Jackpot was won last night by 2 lucky tickets - one in Saskatchewan and one in Newfoundland and Labrador! Over the past three weeks the LOTTO MAX Jackpot has been sitting at its maximum of $50 million and has not been won. As LOTTO MAX's main Jackpot remained at the $50 million level, it generated a total of 126 one-million dollar jackpots called MAXMILLIONS. Draws for those MAXMILLIONS have resulted in 117 winning tickets of 75 one-million dollar jackpots! Today, there are also two winning tickets for the $50 million main Jackpot!

With more money available to be won than ever before in Canadian history, Canadians have responded with great excitement to LOTTO MAX. And LOTTO MAX has delivered, distributing millions of dollars in prizes across the country. Since June 4th, LOTTO MAX has given away a total of 75 MAXMILLIONS - the million dollar jackpots that are awarded once LOTTO MAX reaches its "max" of $50 million. 117 winning tickets have won or shared those 75 million dollars. These tickets were sold across the entire country - from the Atlantic to the Pacific - with MAXMILLIONS winners in every region of Canada.

Last night's holders of the $50 million winning tickets will join a club with a very exclusive membership. Since its launch in September of 2009, this is the third time a $50 million LOTTO MAX Jackpot has been awarded. The first winners were a couple from Manitoba, and the second $50 million was shared between two winners in British Columbia and Quebec.

49 draws for MAXMILLIONS prizes took place last night and 29 of those were won by 41 tickets. As they have in the previous three draws, MAXMILLIONS winners came from every region. The number of MAXMILLIONS available is a combination of carried-over $1 million Jackpots, added to the week's additional sales.

The total 117 winning MAXMILLION tickets since June 4th were located in:

    
    BC - 14
    NWT - 1
    AB - 19
    SK - 5
    MB - 5
    ON - 43
    Que - 23
    Atlantic Canada - 7
    

Next week, the 20 MAXMILLIONS that were not won last night, will be rolled into the base LOTTO MAX Jackpot. Since the base for LOTTO MAX is $10 million, that means next week's LOTTO MAX Jackpot will be worth $30 million dollars!

The five regional lotteries of Canada are joined together through a nationwide lottery organization, the INTERPROVINCIAL LOTTERY CORPORATION, or "ILC".

For further information: Atlantic Lottery Corporation - Courtney Pringle-Carver: 506-867-5942; Loto-Québec - Jean-Pierre Roy: 514-499-5151; Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation - OLG Media Relations: 705-946-6716; Western Canada Lottery Corporation - Kevin van Egdom: 403-742-7125; British Columbia Lottery Corporation - BCLC Communications: 604-276-6460