Stikine Rich! A Resident Of This Remote Canadian Region Has Become A Millionaire Overnight

The remote Stikine Region in the northwesternmost part of British Columbia is not particularly renowned as a home of millionaires, but now it can count at least one among its sparse numbers.

A resident of the region, which is the only area in B.C. which is not in a regional district, has won $20 million playing Lotto Max.

Their winning ticket matched all seven numbers in Tuesday night’s draw, according to a news release from the B.C. Lottery Corporation.

Lottery officials stated that they would announce exactly where the winning ticket was purchased after the winner comes forward.

Whoever stumbled upon the winning ticket has no rush to claim their prize, since they have 52 whole weeks to claim it.

It’s not the first time a prize-winner in B.C. has waited nearly an entire year before stepping forward and collecting their winnings – the Mayrhofer family, who won a $50 million Lotto Max prize back in 2015, waited 12 months before calling to collect.

The family had said that they had hoped to claim the winnings through a trust to keep their identities private, but lottery officials forbade them from doing so, for the sake of transparency.

What was the largest jackpot ever won in B.C? That would be $60 million on a Lotto Max ticket in July, by an 84-year-old retired fisherman named Joe Katalinic, who waited a month before stepping forward to claim his astonishing prize.

At the prize ceremony held at he B.C. Lottery Commission in August, Mr Katalinic had said that he had had a hectic few weeks following the win, so he had put the ticket in a safe-deposit box at the bank and continued as normal.

“There’s other things that I had more in my mind than the $60 million, you know?” he said.

Before Mr Katalinic broke the record with his quick-pick win, the previous record for B.C. was $50 million, which has been won on three occasions through the Lotto Max – on October 29th 2010, in Vancouver; on March 14th 2014, in Langley; and on April 8th 2016, in Kelowna.

About 740 people live in the Stikine Region, including nearly 300 First Nations persons, according to the government of British Columbia. The sprawling region is roughly the size of Nova Scotia, or the US state of Alabama.

With a population density of one person for every 100 km2, it is the least densely inhabited census division in both British Columbia and Canada as a whole.

The Stikine Region borders the Yukon territory as well as the US state of Alaska. The largest population centre is the community of Atlin. It contains no municipal governments, and there is only one local planning area.

The principal economic activity in the region is mining; however, the remoteness of the area and its unusual landscapes are attracting a growing amount of tourist traffic, whilst creating new jobs.