A recent immigrant to Canada is Manitoba's newest millionaire.
Gennadi Belinov is nearly $2 million richer after he won a share of Wednesday night's $3.9 million Lotto 6/49 draw.
The Winnipeg man said he took a long look at a self-serve ticket checker when he scanned his ticket Thursday evening and learned he had won $1,979,992.
"I thought, 'What are all these numbers?' So, I took it to the clerk and asked if she could check the ticket through her machine. Then the machine said 'Woo hoo', and people in the store started screaming," he said in a media release issued by Western Canada Lottery Corp.
Belinov bought the ticket three days earlier at the same spot — the Red River Co-op gas station near the intersection of Brookside and Inkster boulevards.
"I can't say I really felt anything," he said. "It was like somebody was joking. My brother was with me and I said to him, 'I won $2 million.' My brother turned and walked out of the store."
Despite his sudden good fortune, Belinov said he intends to keep his job as a truck driver and operator.
"What else would I do?" he asked. "I need to show an example to my children."
Belinov and his family came to Winnipeg five years ago.
"Everybody knows Canada is paradise," he said when asked what brought him the country. "Everybody wants to come to Canada."
Belinov said his family is already making plans for what to do with the money.
"When you buy a ticket you start dreaming — a nice house, money for the kids' education, and helping family. My wife has lots of plans," he said.
Nice to read lottery winners are trusting clerks to check their tickets.
I don't think the clerk could have done anything anyways, the machine announced that he won and other people around him knew that he won also. The clerk would have been foolish to even try something. (I'm not saying the clerk would take advantage of him. It's just a general statement.)
I don't blame him for keeping his day job.$1.9 million doesn't go as far as it used to.
Congratulations
Good choice, keep working. $2m does not go that far. It's a nice nest egg for retirement, college education for the kiddies, and the ability to replace your car sooner than you usually do. Congrats to Mr Belinov and his family!
The machine really says "woo-hoo"? Reminds me of my daughter's game, The Sims.
If i lived in Canada I would probably quit working, you don't have to worry about health insurance there.
Congrats.
$1.9 million will take the worry out of paying bills and should provide for a comfortable retirement !!!!!
Congrats to the Belinov family!
Wow, what a "welcome to Canada" this is to him and his family.
If you DID live in Canada and won their non-taxed lottery prize of $1.98 Million , you would be wise to keep working while searching for a safer and higher paying income source. Because, most researchers have noticed that the countries citizens that have "national health insurance" cope regularly with hospitals that are too far away, long waiting lists where many listed die before receiving treatments or surgery that is routine and at least 70% success rate. Thus, the continued 'working income' is necessary in order to have something honest to be involved in that one can have respect for, have more money available to one's family in case one choose to go to the United States of America for receiving immediate/critical healthcare care, and also to be able to live mainly off the 4% annual interest rate (apx. $70,000, before taxes, in this case) one would receive from their winnings. It's time that people start developing longterm financial vision, especially if they have more than themself to finance. In light of this, I think that your statement of "quite working" makes more sense if one netted over $2 Million and is single or $4 Million and financially supports a family of more than 2 people.
Canadians pay alot of taxes that fund the health care so people who don't work and expect to get free healthcare and other taxpayer funded benefits are a discouragement to those who do. Personally I'd never quit a job that I'm able to do and be a welfare recipient, but thats just me :-)