MONTREAL WOMAN TOOK $1,000 A WEEK FOR LIFE OVER $1 MILLION
A Montreal lottery winner scratched a ticket on her work break and picked $1,000 a week for life over $1 million.
Brenda Aubin-Vega, 20, won the top prize in the Gagnant à vie game, Loto-Québec announced on July 3, 2025. The prize came with a choice: $1,000 every week for the rest of her life, or a $1 million lump sum.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes! I checked my ticket over and over again,” Aubin-Vega said in an interview with Yahoo News Canada.
She found out while scratching tickets outside her workplace during a break. Loto-Québec said she had bought two tickets at a Montreal convenience store, Dépanneur Jen & Dan, at 1655 Rue Poirier.
Three piggy-bank symbols in the same game revealed the prize.
Yahoo Finance reported that she called her father and took time off work after the win.
She chose the weekly payments, which Loto-Québec said she will receive for the rest of her days. Noovo Info reported that she hoped to use the money to buy a home.
The store got a payday too. Loto-Québec said the retailer will receive a $10,000 commission, equal to 1% of the prize.
The online pushback
Not everyone liked her choice. Yahoo Finance reported that Reddit commenters ridiculed the decision, arguing the lump sum was the more rational option.
The article ran the numbers too. Its analysis put the weekly payments at a 5.2% annual yield on the $1 million alternative, and noted that inflation could eat away at a fixed payment over the years.
Not every Reddit reaction was negative. “The advantage of not taking the lump sum is that the vultures don’t start circling for a payout. It’s the only way you can win a million and tell people,” one commenter said.
Not the only lifetime winner
Aubin-Vega was far from the only lifetime winner that year. By the July 3, 2025 announcement, Loto-Québec said, nine Gagnant à vie top prizes and one Grande Vie lifetime prize had been won in Quebec.
Loto-Québec’s winners page, updated October 3, 2026, does not list Aubin-Vega among its displayed winners.
