I'm not a statistician, but I know that the odds against winning a big lottery jackpot are more or less astronomical. And it follows that the odds of doing so twice in one lifetime, let alone in a span of less than six months, would be exponentially longer. Enter Melhig Melhig, a 28-year-old African immigrant and Canadian Lotto winner who took home big million-dollar-plus prizes in just five months, according to the Western Canada Lottery Corporation.
The first win happened at an RN Convenience Store in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where Melhig plunked down $20 on an instant lottery ticket in April. It ended up being worth $1.2 million, and at the time he said his first move was to move himself and his family to a nicer home:
"Everything is new … We have a nice yard, good schools. We love it."
That would have normally been the happy ending, but a few months later in August he found himself at a Giant Tiger store to buy a game for his kids. The old itch must have crept up on him, because he bought another $20 ticket, this one a Scratch 'N Win game. Incredibly, it ended up being worth even more: $2 million. He summed up his feelings more or less as you would expect:
"It's amazing! I feel so happy."
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Melhig says he's considering opening up a small business, such as a car wash or convenience store, but his more immediate goal is to improve his education:
"But my main goal is to go to school. I want to improve my English and communication. And I want to learn something useful, like carpentry … "I'm young. You always need to think about how to grow."
There's no word on whether he plans to keep spending money on lottery tickets, possibly with an eye towards going for a third win in 2018.
