In a wild twist of love and luck gone wrong, a Winnipeg man is taking his ex-girlfriend to court after she allegedly disappeared with their shared $3.6 million lottery win — and moved on with someone else.
Lawrence Campbell says he was in a committed relationship with Krystal Ann McKay when he bought a Lotto 6/49 ticket on 19 January 2024. According to court documents filed in May and seen by CTV News, the ticket was meant to be a birthday treat for McKay — and it turned out to be the golden one.
Campbell, who says he’d temporarily lost his wallet, handed the ticket to McKay for safekeeping. A few days later, he rediscovered it at a friend’s place and scanned the barcode using his phone. That’s when everything changed. He’d hit the jackpot.
Still in disbelief, the pair rushed to a nearby Shoppers Drug Mart where a video confirmed their win — a whopping five million Canadian dollars. They even phoned friends and family to share the good news. Everything seemed perfect.
But, as the lawsuit outlines, trouble soon followed. Because Campbell didn’t have a valid government-issued ID, staff at the Western Canada Lottery Corporation reportedly told the couple that McKay should claim the prize money on their behalf.
So on 30 January, McKay accepted the cheque solo at a press conference. “It was really overwhelming, exciting,” she said, calling the winning ticket a birthday gift from Campbell.
Campbell added at the time, “She had been asking me for three weeks to get a ticket, but I never went and got one. Then we drove by one, and I was like ‘OK, I might as well go get you one right now.’”
With no bank account of his own, Campbell claims McKay deposited the winnings into hers — promising to handle it for them both.
But not long after their win, things took a strange turn. The lawsuit says McKay stopped coming back to the hotel room they were sharing. Concerned, Campbell says he went looking for her — and found her in bed with another man.
According to the claim, McKay then told Campbell their relationship was over because she wanted to be with this “new guy.” She allegedly blocked him on social media, stopped returning his calls, and even took out a restraining order.
Now, Campbell is suing McKay, the Western Canada Lottery Corporation, and Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries. He argues the lottery corporation gave him poor advice and didn’t properly warn him about the dangers of letting someone else sign the winning ticket.
McKay, for her part, isn’t staying quiet. Her lawyer, Conor Williamson, told The Independent: “Ms. McKay disputes the allegations made against her in the Statement of Claim and will be filing a Statement of Defence.”
It’s a case that’s quickly become a mix of heartbreak, betrayal and legal drama — all sparked by one life-changing lottery ticket.