Cancer survivor David Serkin won draws in August, November and May, and another more than a decade ago
How do you say “lottery winner” in western Canada? The answer is: David Serkin, the name of the cancer survivor from Alberta who won three separate lottery jackpots between August and May to accumulate about $2.5m in prize money.
According to officials, those lucky tickets marked the second, third and fourth times Serkin had won a lottery in his life, a feat that he had vanishingly small chances of pulling off and gained notice on corners of the internet dedicated to charming news stories.
“I know the odds are astronomical, [and] I don’t think it’ll happen again,” Serkin said in a press bulletin issued recently by the Western Canada Lottery Corporation (WCLC). “But I still like buying tickets.”
Serkin won draws of $500,000 on 20 August, $1m on 16 November and $1m on 3 May, the last of those coming from a ticket that he bought at a gasoline station in his home town of Lethbridge. To give an idea of the odds he faced, he had a 1 in about 33.3m chance of winning the first of those jackpots, the WCLC’s bulletin said.
