{"id":74626,"date":"2025-06-18T17:46:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T21:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/?p=74626"},"modified":"2025-06-18T17:46:43","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T21:46:43","slug":"congratulations-to-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/18\/congratulations-to-james\/","title":{"rendered":"Congratulations to James!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>James Firlotte of Wawa is celebrating after stepping inside OLG\u2019s newest experiential lottery game, INSTANT MONEY MACHINE (Game #2481), and winning an incredible $85,000!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

James, who works in the mining industry, has been a regular lottery player with OLG for more than 25 years. He enjoys playing LOTTO MAX and a variety of INSTANT tickets. \u201cI like to end my workday relaxing with an INSTANT ticket,\u201d he shared. Now, James is thrilled to be celebrating his first big win \u2014 a moment he\u2019s been dreaming of for decades.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI grabbed a MONEY MACHINE ticket randomly, not really knowing the game,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted to try it because it was new.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

James played his ticket in-store shortly after purchasing it and uncovered a MONEY MACHINE prize. \u201cI asked the clerk to validate my ticket and watched the animation on the lottery terminal screen, thinking I was about to win a couple bucks. When I won a MONEY MACHINE LIVE EVENT, I hardly knew what was going on! I was so surprised and excited that I began to shake.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The big day in Toronto with the MONEY MACHINE soon arrived, and James was eager to find out how many bills he could catch. \u201cI\u2019m feeling great,\u201d he said with a grin, before stepping into the machine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With just thirty seconds on the clock, James sprang into action, reaching and grabbing as quickly as he could to collect as many bills as possible. When the flurry finally settled, he stepped out of the MONEY MACHINE beaming and breathless. \u201cHoly, jeez!\u201d he exclaimed with a laugh.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Then came the moment of truth. The final count was revealed, and James was stunned to discover he\u2019d be heading home with an incredible $85,000!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI never imagined something like this would happen to me,\u201d he said, still in disbelief. \u201cThis is awesome \u2014 just awesome. I\u2019m trembling with excitement.\u201d Unable to hold back his joy, he gave a big thumbs up and cheered, \u201cWoo hoo!\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked how it felt to step into the whirlwind of the MONEY MACHINE, James said, \u201cIt was fast and exciting, and my adrenaline was pumping. Thirty seconds went by quicker than I thought!\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With his winnings, James plans to pay off his mortgage, help his family, and treat himself to a well-deserved seafood dinner \u2014 with crab legs at the top of the menu. But that\u2019s just the beginning.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He also looks forward to traveling to new places and creating lasting memories. \u201cI love nature and spend a lot of time in the bush,\u201d he explained. \u201cI want to see more of Canada \u2014 especially British Columbia. It\u2019s been a dream of mine to see the giant Douglas fir trees and aqua-coloured lakes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Firlotte of Wawa is celebrating after stepping inside OLG\u2019s newest experiential lottery game, INSTANT MONEY MACHINE (Game #2481), and winning an incredible $85,000!   James, who works in the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":74627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-12 12:59:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74629,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74626\/revisions\/74629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}