Brooklin man wins $500,000 Lotto Max draw

A Brooklin man is half a million dollars richer after a major Lotto Max win, but he’s not sure what to do with his boon quite yet.

Paul Ritschel, a 55-year-old father of two, has been playing the lottery since he turned 18. Typically he plays Lotto Max, 6/49 and Lottario with randomly selected numbers. However, he’d never pulled a big win.

That changed ahead of the Sept. 17 Lotto Max draw. Ritschel picked up his Brooklin Smokey Way on Campbell Street in Whitby.

“I was at home when I decided to check my ticket using the OLG app. When I saw the prize amount, I was in awe. My first thought was, ‘What am I going to do with this money?’ It was a surreal moment,” Paul told the OLG at Prize Centre in Toronto, “I told my close family and friends, and they were all thrilled for me.”

“It’s hard to describe how winning feels since it really hasn’t sunk in yet. I hope that lightning strikes twice, or maybe even three times,” Ritschel added.

He plans to invest his windfall for now .