The Most Patient Lottery Jackpot Winner of All Time

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Edmonton man plays the same lottery numbers for 30 years, then waits 10 months to Cash in $60M winning lottery ticket – on purpose!

Do you consider yourself to be a patient person? Do you take the time to think things through – I mean really think them through – before making and acting on a big decision? If you’ve answered, “Yes”, I’d be willing to bet you’re still nowhere near as patient and financially disciplined as 55 year old Bon Truong of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

If you haven’t already heard in the ‘strange but true‘ section of your favorite news media portal, Bon Truong is the latest winner of Alberta’s Lotto Max. Its name is derived from the fact that players can only win a maximum of $60 million as the jackpot prize. That’s exactly the amount Truong won in the October 26, 2018 drawing. But he’s just now receiving his $60 million prize.

Truong Finally Cashes in $60M Winning Lottery Ticket

No, Truong isn’t related to any lottery retailer employees, forcing a long and drawn out investigation. He didn’t lose his ticket in the couch or under his car seat. He didn’t even get in an accident, sending him into a coma for the last 305 days, only to wake with just weeks remaining to cash in that 8-figure prize. It was not fate that forced him to wait, but rather an extreme degree of patience.

You see, Bon Truong isn’t your typical gear-grinding Canadian, waiting for his ship to come in, then giving his boss the finger and dancing his way to the bank. Truong is a man who was raised in Vietnam, then came to Canada as a refugee immediately after the Vietnam War. He arrived here with nothing but what was left of the clothes on his back.

Bon Truong has worked hard every day of his life since. He worked to save money and buy a house. He worked to raise his family, keeping them fed, clothed, and educated. Most of all, he worked to teach his family the importance of hard work; that anyone who works hard enough can persevere over any situation.

So after nearly 30 years of buying the exact same lottery ticket, featuring the exact same numbers – all numbers important to him in some way – when he looked at the television screen and saw those numbers come up on that fateful day in October 2018, he knew he had won. But he did not react.

He sat quietly for a few minutes until his body calmed, then he called his wife and said, “I win”. He did not say how much he had won, and since his reaction was not one of great excitement, she did not ask. Truong wrote his name and phone number on the back of the ticket, as instructed, then placed it in a locked safe.

Week after week, month after month, Truong sat on the ticket, thinking about what to do with all that money, preparing himself and his family for a drastically different future. He decided paying the mortgage would come first, and that a holiday would come last, but he’s still not sure on the in between. Odds are, Bon would still be thinking and preparing for the future if the expiration date on the ticket weren’t drawing so near. Winners have only one year to claim their prize, less it be donated back into the lottery system.

But alas, Bon Truong did turn in the winning lottery ticket and claim his prize. The Edmonton landscaper says he will return to work. “I’m still young. I’m still strong,” he told reporters at the prize claim center. He also said he doesn’t intend to tell his children yet just how much he’s won, as he wants them to retain the value of a strong work ethic. “Maybe after 10 years or 20 years I’ll tell them,” he said.