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Sadly, his sister Caroline died Aug. 17.

“My sister died last Saturday,” he said. “I (also) had a knee operation a month-and-a-half ago; now the other one’s bothering me. There’s other things that I had more in my mind than the $60 million, you know?”

The retired fisherman has no grand plans for the cash.

“I’ll take it easy for a while,” he said. “I’ll make little trips around B.C. and that, see my relatives.”

Katalinic was born in Flin Flon, Man., where his dad was a miner. But the family moved to Richmond in 1937, and he’s been there ever since.

“I started fishing when I was 16 years old,” he said. “I quit school and went fishing. It was a seven-man crew out of Steveston.”

Katalinic’s $60-million win is the biggest by a British Columbian ever. The previous record was $50 million, which has been won on three occasions through the Lotto Max: Oct. 29, 2010, in Vancouver; March 14, 2014, in Langley; and April 8, 2016, in Kelowna.

The biggest Lotto Max prize has been $65 million, which was won in June by a couple from Montreal. On average, there are 11 Lotto Max jackpot winners annually in Canada.

B.C. has had 16 Lotto Max jackpot winners since the lottery was introduced in 2009. The jackpot is for $10 million to $70 million — there was a $39-million winner in Surrey on Dec. 28, 2018. There have also been 155 “Maxmillions” winners from B.C., which is a secondary prize of $1 million.

There are now two Lotto Max draws per week, and sales go up as the prize gets bigger — BCLC said it sees a 35-per-cent sales increase when the Lotto Max hits $50 million, and an additional 25 per cent when the prize gets to $60 million.

The lottery Katalinic won started at $10 million June 28 and rolled over four times before it hit $60 million July 26.

Katalinic doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who gets overly excited. But he admits, “When I seen the 60, I went nuts … (I was) walking around like a wild dog, just crazy.”

jmackie@postmedia.com

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