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Prairies break record for new millionaires

An amazing run of lotto luck on the Prairies this year led to a record-breaking number of new millionaires.

WINNIPEG — An amazing run of lotto luck on the Prairies this year led to a record-breaking number of new millionaires.

“We had a record-breaking year in 2010, an amazingly record-shattering year,” said Andrea Marantz of the Western Canada Lottery Corp. “We had 53 winners of $1 million or more. To put that in some kind of context, our previous record was 29.”

That happened in 1993.

This year’s 53 jackpots from various game draws, including Lotto 6-49 and Lotto Max, totalled more than a quarter of a billion dollars, Marantz said. That’s on top of any other prizes.

The biggest single winner was Cameron Blair, an unemployed welder from Beaumont who won $41.7 million on April 23.