OTTAWA -- It's a pretty nice payday for a group of 14 Ottawa scientists who won a $1 million Max Millions draw while playing the lottery together.

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) says the group has collected the prize they won in a draw back in February.

"The group of 14 scientific researchers have been playing the lottery together for almost four years. Currently they are actively involved in COVID-19 research with a Canadian university," OLG said in a news release.

Rahul Vohra is one member of the group. He is quoted in OLG's press release saying they found out about their win on a Saturday in February.

“I had a text and a call from my boss and was worried something was wrong at work,” he said. “Then the call came in from our group leader, John [Maione], and then the other members. We didn’t get a lot of work accomplished that day!”

Vohra says each of the families splitting the winnings will have different plans for it. “There are 14 families that are going to feel the benefit of this windfall. I expect some will invest, some will pay for their kids’ education and some may even buy new cars. Regardless, we all feel very good and blessed to have this experience,” he said.

The group members are:

  • Rahul Vohra of Kanata
  • John Maione of Ottawa
  • Adrian Culf of Ottawa
  • Andrzej Wozniak of Ottawa
  • Chuda Lohani of Nepean
  • Feng Yan of Orleans
  • Ghazar Aharonian of Orleans
  • Hassan Asadollahi Kalviri of Ottawa
  • Hui Liu of Gatineau
  • Kenneth Clark of Ottawa
  • Oscar Rebollo Andres of Kanata
  • Remmick So of Nepean
  • Sorin Gustin of Gatineau
  • Zhonghong Gan of Nepean

The winning ticket was purchased at Petro Canada on Montreal Road in Gloucester.