John Cook and his wife purchased two businesses in their community of Little Dover, N.S. just over two years ago. While one of those businesses is an Atlantic Lottery retailer, Cook never expected to be a lottery winner himself. All that changed when he took home a $250,000 prize after spinning the MEGA 360 wheel at Atlantic Lottery’s head office in Moncton, N.B.

“When I won the spin on the ticket, I was watching the wheel on the screen and it came up, ‘Mega 360,’ and I started shaking,” Cook said. “We were pretty near shook for two days.”

MEGA 360 is the first Scratch, Watch and Spin game offered by Atlantic Lottery. The game can be played as either a Scratch’N Win ticket at retail or as an Instant Win game at alc.ca. Players first scratch their ticket or click through their digital game, and those who unlock the “spin” feature in their game get to watch an animated wheel spin to reveal their prize – this happens during in-store validation for Scratch’N Win tickets or online for Instant Win games. If a spin lands on “MEGA 360”, the player wins the opportunity to spin the MEGA 360 wheel at Atlantic Lottery’s head office in Moncton, N.B.

“When we bought the businesses, we poured everything we had into them. We don’t own the businesses, the businesses own us,” Cook said. “We have been putting every cent we made in the stores right back into them because there are upgrades we want to do, so now we’ll be able to pay off our debt.”

Atlantic Lottery has numerous controls and protections in place to ensure that everyone who plays our games has an equal chance of winning, including retailers and related parties. For Scratch’N Win tickets, a related party win of $10,000 or greater is subject to a 30-day wait period following an investigation, which applied to Cook as the owner of an Atlantic Lottery retail location.

“As a retailer, I knew we were allowed to buy tickets but I called my sales rep from Atlantic Lottery to ask him what to do and he walked me through the process,” Cook said.

Prizes on the MEGA 360 wheel range from $100,000 to $500,000, guaranteeing anyone who spins the wheel walks away with at least a $100,000 prize. Cook’s wheel spin resulted in his prize of $250,000.

Cook said that he and his wife plan to use the prize money to pay off debt, take a family vacation, do some home renovations and save for their son’s education.

Cook, who also serves as the assistant deputy of the local volunteer fire department and volunteers in various capacities with local sporting initiatives in the community, says they are grateful for the support they have felt from their friends and neighbours.

“We do what we can to help others, that’s just who we are,” Cook said. “It makes us feel really good to know the community is behind us.”