Calgary friends split $50-million lottery win

A trio of Calgary friends and former co-workers are each $16.6 million richer after splitting a whopping $50 million Lotto 6-49 jackpot. 

Carmen Austria, Gary Perkins and Catherine Wall have known each other for two decades.

They started buying tickets together 17 years ago and won big with the Dec. 9, 2023 draw. 

The cost: a $10 ticket purchased from the Scenic Acres Husky in Calgary. 

"I don’t think anything prepares you for that much emotion," said Wall. 

Perkins said he got a phone call and a string of text messages from his friends and he wasn’t initially sure what was going on. 

"It just didn’t compute," he said.

The group called the lotto office when they found out about their win, but the office was closed because it was around the holidays. 

Austria said the first big purchase was a five-week trip to Chile. 

Catherine Wall (left), Carmen Austria (middle) and Gary Perkins (right) won $50M on a Dec. 9 Lotto 6-49 draw."I was at the Ford dealership the very next day," Perkins said with a laugh. 

"I’ve been preparing for this my whole life."

Wall, on the other hand, said she immediately told her work her plans to retire. 

She said a friend sent her a gold-painted 'Millionaires starter kit,' filled with a blinged-out cup and a novelty money gun that spits out fake $100 bills.