November 4, 2010
Gay Couple Celebrates 30th Anniversary with $50 Lottery Win
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 1 MIN.
A Canadian gay couple struck it rich with a $50 million lottery win--just in time for their 30th anniversary.
Vancouver residents Claude and Kurt Blanchette-Ebert had been thinking about celebrating the occasion with something more modest--a used car--when Kurt purchased a ticket that would prove a jackpot winner, reported local newspaper the Vancouver Sun on Nov. 3.
Kurt, 63, purchased the ticket on Oct. 30. When he went back to the store two days later, he realized that his was the winning ticket. "The first thing I said was 'holy shit,' " Kurt, 63, recounted. It took the couple a few days to get used to the idea, the article said; when Kurt broke the news to his employer (and announced that he was leaving), his boss "just fell on the ground and rolled around laughing," Kurt said. "It was very entertaining."
The couple collected their winnings on Nov. 2.
The winning ticket also proved a boon for business for the shop where Kurt bought it. Clerk Sunil Arora told the Vancouver Sun in a separate article, "Everybody wants to buy a ticket from me. Business is up." Added Arora, " I'm lucky for others, not for me."
But the couples' good news gets even better. In Canada, winners of the lottery are given their winnings in a lump sum and do not pay tax on them, according to a Wikipedia article.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
