Some people use Facebook to stay in touch with relatives across long distances. Others schedule regular Zoom calls to hang out with family members who are otherwise too far to visit. Some use the phone to catch up with their loved ones, while others wait to link up in person over the holidays. 

It's quite possible that the recent winners of a $500,000 LOTTO MAX prize do some or all of these things, but they've also got a cute (and now lucrative) family activity of their own: Playing the lottery.

Six family members hailing from across southern Ontario were just announced by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) as the winners of a MAXMILLIONS prize in the Oct. 7, 2022, LOTTO MAX draw.

Siobhan Quinlan of Ottawa, Andrea Merrick of Toronto, David Merrick of Toronto, Shannon Steele of Ottawa, Barbara Quinlan of Mississauga and David Quinlan of Mississauga are collectively half-a-million dollars richer, and they couldn't be more thrilled.

According to the OLG, the family members often play the lottery together when the jackpot is huge. They also play on their own, individually, "all the time."

Steele is said to have purchased the winning ticket on behalf of her loved ones at Essential Plus Mart on Matthew Street in Marmora, Ontario, this time around, using numbers given to her by every member of the group to play.

It was Siobhan Quinlan who checked the ticket and discovered the group's big win, which equates to about $83,000 per person.

"I am so excited thinking of all the opportunities," she told OLG, noting that she immediately called the rest of the winning group members to tell them the news. 

They took it well, albeit with a great deal of surprise.

"I got the phone call, and I was shell shocked," said David Quinlan, who got the long-distance ring in Mississauga from Ottawa.

The Quinlan-Merrick-Steele clan didn't specify what they planned to do with the money, aside from paying off some bills and investing into savings, but one would hope that a celebratory family trip (someplace warm, maybe) is still on the table.