The 18-year-old wins $48 million in her first lottery game

Recently in Canada, a $48 million lottery ticket was sold to someone who had never played the lottery – because she had just turned 18. Juliette Lamour bought the ticket at a Circle K store in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario and found out she had won at work on January 7th.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation presented Lamour with its giant check on Friday, naming her the youngest Canadian to ever win such a large jackpot through the lottery.

Lamour said it was her grandfather who suggested she buy a lottery ticket. “I had just turned 18 and my grandfather suggested I buy a lottery ticket for fun,” Lamour said at a media conference on Friday, according to the OLG.

Lamour said she checked the ticket while working on the lottery app and a jingle started playing saying “Big Winner.” “My colleague fell to his knees in disbelief. He was screaming, in fact everyone was screaming, that I had won $48 million,” she said, nearly $36 million. “At first I didn’t understand what was going on. I couldn’t absorb the news. We made quite a scene in the store that day.”

When she called her parents, she was sobbing and her mother couldn’t understand what she was saying. “Luckily, my dad was able to decipher that I had won the jackpot on the lottery,” Lamour said. “I knew I couldn’t focus on my work anymore and my boss told me to go home, but my mom wanted me to finish my day.”

“My colleagues shouted ‘come and get her’ and my parents finally came,” she said.

Lamour, who is from Sault Ste. Marie says she hopes to become a doctor in Ontario after college. She said she plans to invest the money — and luckily her father is a financial planner.

She also plans to put some of it into a trip for her family. “When school is over, my family and I will choose a continent and explore it,” she said. “I’m not one to spend my days at the beach. I want to visit other countries, learn about their history and culture, taste food and listen to people who speak their language.”

“Money doesn’t define you,” Lamour said. “It’s the work you do that will define you.”