A man from Vancouver, Canada, who won CA$2 million (USD$1.39 million) from the British Columbia lottery in 2022 has finally been granted the all-clear to keep his winnings by a local court.
Mandeep Singh Khan (pictured) successfully claimed the $2 million prize. However, four co-workers at the trucking company he was employed at subsequently claimed the ticket was purchased as part of a syndicate. They believed that meant they were due a share of the winnings, and took him to court over it.
Khan denied the allegations. He agreed that he had been part of a syndicate with the plaintiffs, but maintained he was also a frequent solo lottery player. He said the jackpot-winning ticket had been bought with his own money.
This week, the B.C. Supreme Court Justice Y. Liliane Bantourakis ruled in favor of Khan, meaning he is now clear to enjoy his winnings in peace.
“I’m so relieved right now. The reputation of my family was on the line,” said Khan, speaking on Monday to the Vancouver Sun newspaper.
The Win
On August 17, 2022, Khan bought the winning ticket from a Langley Chevron gas station in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey.
Two days later, he claimed his CA$2 million win at the B.C. Lottery Corporation headquarters in central Vancouver.
He had participated in a lottery syndicate with four colleagues, organized via a WhatsApp group chat. But Khan always claimed that he bought this particular winner with his own money for solo play.
Despite buying the winner with his own credit card, Khan claimed that he was well aware of his colleagues in the lottery syndicate and how they might have felt about the win. So he didn’t disclose the news of his good fortune widely and continued to attend work.
However, one of his colleagues saw a photo of Khan appear on a Facebook post from the lottery, holding an oversized jackpot check.
According to Khan, the four colleagues discussed outside of their group chat what to do. They were at first cordial with him, and two plaintiffs even congratulated him on the win.
The Lawsuit and Khan’s Second Win
But then, two weeks later, they filed a lawsuit against him. The lawsuit claimed that the tickets had been bought as part of an office pool, and they were rightfully entitled to a share of the two million.
This week, Bantourakis ruled against the plaintiffs and in favor of Khan. The judge said that the plaintiffs’ accounts were inconsistent and the WhatsApp group records did not prove Khan took any money from members in the days directly before the big win.
She added that B.C. Lottery records show Khan spent CA$12 on tickets the day he bought the winner from his own money, which indicated he was telling the truth in this case. The usual lottery purchases recorded by the group in the chat were of minimum CA$50 each time.
Bantourakis did not call out the plaintiffs for being dishonest in making their claim. She said they came to court with some reasons to believe Khan could have used their money to buy the winner. But the balance of evidence suggested he did not.
“It is my impression that each of the plaintiffs came to Court with a sincerely held belief in their entitlement to a share of the winnings,” Bantourakis wrote in the conclusion to her judgement.
“Though the plaintiffs may feel that they have a moral entitlement to a share of the winnings, they have not established any legal entitlement. Their claim is therefore dismissed.”
As for Khan, he says he still works with all four of the men who sued him over the winnings. He hasn’t purchased anything flashy with the winnings, except a new car.
“I didn’t want to run away like a loser or a liar,” he said, speaking to local media.
David is an online casino expert who specializes in online slots and boasts over 10 years experience writing about iGaming. He has written for a wide range of notable publications, including eSports Insider and WordPlay Magazine.
David graduated Derby University with a BA Degree in English Literature and Creative Writing.
