Accommodation Chez François or when dreams become reality

Imagine the scene: an edgy couple makes a noisy entry into your convenience store to validate what it is believed to be the winning ticket of a jackpot.

Everyone holds his breath.

After a few seconds, the lottery terminal confirms and then comes the explosion of joy for the second Lotto Max jackpot to be won in Quebec in history, amounting to an incredible… $ 60 million!

“It’s incredible the emotions we’ve gone through,” says Nancy Tremblay. As much as the winners, we had trouble believing it. It’s completely crazy! “(Source: Transcontinental).

François Gauthier and Nancy Tremblay, managers of Maestro‘s Accommodation Chez François store located in the Saguenay region, have experienced the full range of emotions since they sold the winning Lotto Max ticket. In the process, they are earning a tiny part of the jackpot but winning money is one thing, dealing with the media storm that comes with it is another. Indeed, the news generated a flurry of reports over several weeks between the confirmations of the Quebec win, the release of the convenience store that sold the ticket, the winners’ names and the official check remittances to one and to the other. This great windows of media visibility represents a huge opportunity for Loto-Québec to reinforce its message “that one day it will be your turn” and the Quebec lottery crown corporation is certainly not to miss such good visibility.

Thus, on February 23, Loto-Québec landed on the premises of the store with a musician, an ice sculptor and candy samples in order to officially remit the owners with a check for $ 600,000 (representing 1% of the jackpot).

Loto-Québec arrived to the convenience store with its public relations dog and pony show to remit the check to the owners and, above all, reassess customers that “one day, it will be your turn”. – Photo: Radio-Canada

The depanneur, which now proudly displays its feat on its front sign (see photo) has seen its lottery sales explode since the news broke out according to Loto-Québec‘s Quebec City Director of Sales, Jacques Bordeleau. And because customers may think that there is now fewer chances to win the lottery in the same c-store who sold the winning Lotto Max ticket, Loto-Québec reminded, in a press release, that the chances of winning the jackpot are still one in 28 million, no matter where the previous winning tickets were bought.

The convenience store Accommodation Chez François adapted its sign to highlight the fact that he sold the winning ticket (source: Transcontinental).

According to Transcontinental, the extra money won by the owners will allow them to complete the renovation of their convenience store.

“We refurbished most of the outside a year and a half ago, then a little by little, we started doing the inside. We had plans to move the cashier inside, that’s what we will do”, said manager Nancy Tremblay.

An incredible chance, certainly. However, the gain is less than it seems at first glance.

Indeed, two years ago, Revenu Québec unilaterally changed the rules of taxation for c-store owners so that these gains are now considered to be business income and not tax-free lottery winnings, as is the case for customer winners.

So should the owners wanted to pocket it, they would have to pay for various and complex deductions, which in all likelihood will remove about 40 per cent of the total amount that goes back directly into government coffers.

If, on the other hand, they decide to invest the lottery gain in infrastructure, equipment, inventory, real estate or other, they could then spend it in full and defer the tax accordingly.

That’s why those who end up winning really big are the customers who are granted with a one-time, non-taxable revenue! Enough to spark a dream, surely.

Carl Villeneuve, 2nd from left, and his spouse Marie-Josée Picard, 4th from the left, Saguenay, hold the $ 60M check for the Lotto Max jackpot during a press conference on 13th February 2017 in the offices of Loto-Québec. The couple decided to share the lot with 11 members of their family. Credit: Canadian Press / Jacques Boissinot

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *