marcel leclaire three lottery wins have left the 73-year-old retired Sudbury taxi driver stunned yet again. Standing at the counter of the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto, he still sounded surprised as he described the moment he discovered his latest top prize: $88, 888 on an Instant Lunar 8s ticket.
Marcel Leclaire Three Lottery Wins: The sequence and the numbers
Leclaire’s string of big prizes began with a $1 million Encore win in 2017 and continued with a $3 million Instant Platinum prize in 2025. His newest prize, a top Instant Lunar 8s payout, added $88, 888 to a lifetime of lottery play that he says spans more than 40 years with OLG. He bought the winning Instant Lunar 8s ticket at Donovan Variety on Kathleen Street in Sudbury.
Leclaire explained a little of how he picked the ticket. “I’m a fan of David Pastrňák, and his jersey number is 88. I saw the number 88 on this ticket, so I decided to pick one up, ” he said. The association with the number stuck: Instant Lunar 8s carries a top prize of $88, 888 and sells for $5 a play. The game lists odds of winning any prize at 1 in 3. 61.
How the wins changed a life and what comes next
Even after two previous large prizes, Leclaire said the reaction was immediate and intense. “I stood there in complete shock. Even though it was my third big win, the feeling was just as intense as the first, ” he said, noting that he shared the news with his brother, who was very happy for him.
Leclaire plans to use the new money to help buy a new home and furnish it, and he intends to save a portion of the winnings. Those practical choices echo the way the wins have been absorbed into daily life: decades of playing, sudden financial shifts, and repetitive decisions about how to spend or preserve each windfall.
From a Sudbury storefront to a Toronto prize centre: small moments, larger pattern
The winning ticket’s purchase at a local convenience store and the later trip to the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto to collect the check underline two small, concrete steps that tie this personal story to institutional structures: retail distribution and centralized prize claims. The scene of a man in his seventies, steady after a life behind a taxi wheel, holding an $88, 888 cheque, is both intimate and emblematic.
Leclaire summed up the experience simply: “It’s great, and I feel really fortunate. ” That sentiment—gratitude mixed with surprise—has accompanied each of his major prizes and now frames how he approaches a future that includes a new home, new furniture and a measure of savings.
Back in Sudbury, the same streets where he once drove passengers now hold a small marker of repeated chance: a ticket bought at Donovan Variety on Kathleen Street, the number 88 on the slip, and a phone call to family. For marcel leclaire three lottery wins, the pattern is not only about money but about how an ordinary habit—playing OLG games for more than four decades—can produce extraordinary, life-altering moments.
