Winnipeg man blames Western Canada Lottery for allegedly misleading him

Includes video report

By Kate Northrop

A Canadian man filed a lawsuit against his ex-girlfriend for disappearing after he allegedly gave her the go-ahead to claim a $5 million (US$3.6 million) lottery prize on his behalf.

One Winnipeg man launched scathing accusations against his former girlfriend for running off with a $5 million prize from a ticket he allegedly purchased on his own.

In court documents filed in Manitoba Court of King's Bench on May 14, 2025 Lawrence Campbell alleges Krystal Ann McKay disappeared with a multi-million lottery prize that would have been his.

"No one in all of history has simultaneously been a jackpot winner and jackpot loser of the same draw, with the same numbers, on the same ticket," Campbell's lawyer, Chad Panting, said in a statement to CBC News.

According to filings, Campbell was at the CanCo convenience store on Isabel Street in Winnipeg, Canada when he decided to purchase a $12 Quick Pick Lotto 6/49 ticket for the Jan. 20, 2024 drawing. At the time, he was "in a loyal, committed and promising romantic partnership" with McKay.

He forgot about the ticket until he found it again on the ground at his friend's home a few days later. He scanned the ticket using his phone and discovered that it had matched all six winning numbers and scooped a $5 million prize.

"...that's when they found out he won, he couldn't believe it," documents read. "He had won the Lotto 6/49 jackpot."

He and McKay dialed up friends and family members to relay the exciting news, after which the pair visited a nearby lottery retailer to record a video verifying the win.

There was an issue, however: Campbell had recently lost his wallet. The day after discovering the win and again on Jan. 30, 2024, Campbell and McKay visited Western Canada Lottery offices. Lottery officials allegedly led him to believe that he "would be ineligible and unable to claim the winnings" without a valid government issued ID. Instead, he was told to allow McKay to publicly claim the prize.

During the press conference celebrating McKay as the winner, she received a giant check for $5 million and fielded questions from reporters alongside Campbell. They said that the winning ticket was a birthday gift from Campbell to McKay, who had been supposedly asking him for weeks to buy her a ticket.

"She had been asking me for three weeks to get a ticket, but I never went and got one," Campbell told the press. "Then we drove by one [a retailer], and I was like, 'OK, I might as well go get you one right now.'"

"It was really overwhelming, exciting," McKay said at the event.

Campbell's lawsuit denies that the ticket was ever purchased as a birthday gift for McKay.

Campbell's lawsuit claims McKay then deposited the $5 million prize into her bank account since Campbell did not have an active account of his own. In the days after the claim, they had been sharing a hotel room, but according to the claim, McKay did not return to their room one night.

"[Campbell] states that that day he set out to visit a few of her known spots where she would party and sure enough after some investigation, he found her; in bed, with another guy," the lawsuit says.

Documents state that McKay told Campbell she intended to end their relationship "to be with this new guy," and that she had "ghosted him" by ignoring his calls and messages, blocking him on social media, and even filing a protection order against him.

McKay "used the resulting conflict between them as a pretext to effectively deprive the plaintiff from access to his rightful monies," the filings say.

Now, Campbell is firing on all fronts, blaming not just his former girlfriend for taking the winnings he was allegedly due, but the Western Canada Lottery Corporation and the Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corporation for reportedly giving him "ill-gotten and negligent advice" to have the ticket validated under someone else's name.

"This case is about systemic karma vs. the system itself," Panting wrote in an e-mail to CTV News. "A situation created or certainly enabled by the state-owned Lottery Corporations administering lotto claims in Manitoba."

On May 20, 2025, a judge granted a restraining order that freezes McKay's assets and prevents her from selling, gifting, or transferring any property including but not limited to bank accounts, investment accounts, retirement accounts, shares, business interests, stocks, bonds, motor vehicles, and real property and land.

"We understand how unbelievable parts of his story are, believe us," Panting said in a statement. "Mr. Campbell did not personally feel very good, as he slowly realized that the trust he had with all three defendants was misplaced and violated. He relied on the system and got burned, trusted his partner and was deceived."

A court hearing is set for June 13, 2025.

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