Five Time Lottery Winner to Collect $17 Million

Most of us would consider ourselves lucky with one big lottery win but Seguro Ndabene who traded the warm tropical weather of Mozambique for the cold of Western Canada has won the lottery not once, not twice, but five times! Ndabene who lives in Airdrie, north of Calgary, has racked up two wins of $1 million dollars, another win of $100,000 and a fourth win of $500,000! Ndabene biggest win of all, $17 million, is being contested by Tony Koprnicky, also of Airdrie, who claims the winning ticket was a part of a group purchase.

Ndabene's extraordinary run of good luck began in 2005 when he won $1 million dollars while working for the Nishi-Khon Forestry Service in Yellowknife. Ndabene has a degree in business administration and says he has been playing and buying lottery tickets for years. Although there have been many multiple lottery winners over the years Andrea Marantz from Western Canada Lottery Corp. said it would be impossible to calculate the odds of one player winning the lottery five times. Marantz said, "It's an unanswerable question because he won on different games and each game has different odds. You also can't possibly do any kind of an odds calculation unless you know how many tickets somebody has."The lottery corporation investigates all wins of more than $10,000.

During the dispute Ndabene said he was confident he would prevail in court. Ndabene said there is no doubt that the winning lottery is his alone and in a later development Tony Koprnicky, the man who made the original complaint told the Calgary Sun that he had made a mistake. The investigation was so complex that the Lottery Corporation turned the investigation over to Provincial authorities. Finally in November Mr. Ndabene won his court challenge and will collect the $17 million he won in January. Mr. Ndabene has to be Canada's luckiest man!

Not everyone can be as lucky as Mr. Ndabene when buying lottery tickets. Most of us would be happy with one big win. For those looking for a more convenient way to purchase lottery tickets many state and national lotteries now allow the sale of online lottery tickets. Players can log on to individual lottery websites and check for the latest winning numbers and can also access a database with the location of the nearest lottery retailer. The ability to purchase online lottery tickets can eliminate the need for a trip to a lottery terminal and there is no waiting in long lines. Lotteries are swiftly catching up with 21st century technology.