B.C. friends nab 'unbelievable' $1M lotto win just before Christmas 

Vancouver friends Wai Hing Yuen and Tang Mei Deng will be splitting $1 million for Christmas after a December Lotto 6/49 draw win. (Courtesy: BCLC)

Two friends from B.C’s Lower Mainland are feeling particularly merry this December, after a single lottery ticket purchased from a small kiosk landed them instant millionaire status.

Vancouver’s Wai Hing Yuen and Tang Mei Deng had been playing the lottery together for around a year when they purchased their winning ticket for the Dec. 11, Lotto 6/49 draw at a small kiosk, the two told the B.C. Lottery Corporation.

At the booth at Champlain Square on Vancouver’s Kerr Street, each had selected their own numbers.

It wasn’t until they checked their ticket at a shopping mall in Delta that the duo found it to be worth a cool $1 million.

“We checked the ticket on a self-checker at Tsawwassen Mills,” said Yuen in a statement released by the BCLC.

“I didn’t believe it and thought this is a lot of zeros. I made Tang Mei check it too,” he said.

Deng, noting how it feels “unbelievable” to win, said she couldn't wait to share the news with her family and was most excited to first divulge the secret to her daughter.

Yuen on the other hand remained tight lipped after finding out the news, and still hadn’t told anyone at the time of collecting his winnings from the lottery corporation.

While news of the windfall remains firmly under wraps, that’s not to say Yuen hasn’t pondered how it will be spent.

He told the BCLC he plans to visit Hong Kong, while Deng hopes to embark on a holiday cruise with a group of friends.

The odds of winning the main Lotto 6/49 jackpot – which requires matching all six numbers drawn without using the bonus number – are approximately one in 14 million, according to the BCLC.