A recent Lotto Max win has left him $55 million richer.
Sidney’s Scott Gurney bought his winning Lotto Max ticket at the Save-On-Foods on Beacon Avenue Feb. 28th. The bookkeeper tried to keep the win under wraps but decided to go public earlier this week.
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“I’ve tried to keep it small, but it was getting harder and harder when people were saying ‘well we’ll see you next year,’ and as much as I’d love to I don’t know if I want to do another tax season,” Gurney said during a press conference on Tuesday.
When the news about Vancouver Island’s latest millionaire hit the airwaves, no one was more surprised than the other Scott Gurney. That’s right, there’s two Scott Gurneys living in Greater Victoria.
“I buy lottery tickets regularly and so when we heard that there was a $55 million winner in Victoria we checked and like ‘no that’s not us’ and then forgot all about it,” says the other Gurney.
That was until his phone proceeded to light up with calls and texts from family, friends and others he had never heard of congratulating him on his big win.
“There was texts messages, phone calls, emails started to come in and some were friends, some were family, some were investors and financial advisers,” laughs Gurney.
“So it took me a little bit to wrap my head around what was going on and then I figured it out.”
Even before the Lotto win, Gurney knew of the other Scott in town.
“When I’ve checked into the hospital before they’re like ‘are you sure you’re the Scott Gurney you’re saying you are?,” says Gurney.
“So I might have met him or his son at one point to and we just kind of shared the story of having the same name and so I know he’s out there and when I heard this I was like ‘well good for him.”
While it might have been disappointing for Gurney to lose out on a big payday, he hopes that one day he’ll be the winning Scott Gurney.
“You know at the end of the day I’ll just keep buying my lottery tickets and hope that lightning strikes twice on Scott Gurney in Victoria,” says Gurney.
Cole Sorenson
