When Atlantic Lottery retailers sell a winning ticket, they receive a seller’s prize worth one percent of the winning ticket’s value. One per cent might not sound like much, but you may be surprised at just how much of an impact some store owners make with the money.

Look no further than Clint Harvey’s recent Lotto 6/49 jackpot win worth $3 million. That meant Boom Collins, the owner of South End Gas and Convenience in Gambo, N.L., received the one per cent prize of $30,000 as the selling retailer.

“We knew the staff had to get some, they’ve been working with this COVID and done a marvelous job keeping the store running,” Collins said. “Then, we didn’t have enough to share with everyone, so we chose four entities in town that do a lot of good things for a lot of good people.”

Every one of South End Convenience and Gas’ 12 staff members received a share of the prize money. Then, Collins and his staff donated funds to the local Lions Club, volunteer fire department, Salvation Army Food Bank and the Gambo Recreation Committee.

“I try to help as much as I can,” Collins said. “You have to remember the people who got you where you’re going. Be as loyal to them as they are to you.”

It wasn’t the first time we’ve seen a big win help a retailer to make a meaningful impact in their community. In August 2020, Raymond Lillington won his second Lotto 6/49 jackpot (but that’s a whole different story – read it here) worth a whopping $17.4 million. The Cabot Trail Food Market was the selling retailer of Lillington’s jackpot-winning ticket and received the one per cent seller’s prize worth just over $174,000.

The store had been struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic and owner James Mcevoy had been preparing for the difficult reality of laying off some of their staff.

“In a normal summer, the place would be packed inside. We’re probably down close to 70 per cent this year,” Mcevoy said at the time. “We’ve got 10 employees and we might have had to lay a couple of people off, but now we can keep them on for sure and can make the winter without laying anybody off.”

In addition to the prize money they received, the Cabot Trail Food Market also saw an increase in business thanks to the attention their store received for selling the jackpot winning ticket.

However big or small, prize money or no prize money, we have seen many retailers making a positive impact across our region. Business owners in Atlantic Canada are well-known to support the communities that support them and Atlantic Lottery could not be any prouder to call them our retail partners.