Scratch card luck strikes twice — St. John's, NL couple wins the lottery again

Edward Lado thought his wife was joking when she told him in August they had won the lottery.

Not only was it a huge win, it was the St. John’s couple’s second time hitting the jackpot on a scratch ticket, having won $2.5 million on a Multi-Millionaire Scratch ‘n Win in 2018. At the time, that was the largest prize ever won in Newfoundland and Labrador on an Atlantic Lottery scratch game.

“I thought maybe she was bluffing when she told me. I really couldn’t believe it,” Edward said in a recent Atlantic Lottery release. “I told her to calm down and when I come home, we will see if it is real.”

It was real.

This time around the couple won the top Set for Life prize on a ticket purchased at the Kiwanis Street Marie’s Mini Mart, with a choice of receiving $1,000 a week for 25 years or a lump sum payment of $675,000. The Lados chose to receive the lump sum.

The couple plans to use some of their winnings to pay for their children’s post-secondary education, and are still deciding about the rest.

“We will think about anything else along the way, but for now we are just digesting the moment and letting it sink in,” Edward said. “We don’t want to rush into anything.”

News of the couple’s rare second win has gone viral online, with People magazine among the outlets that have picked up the story.