 Pina and Mike Dettore (left) and Samir and Denise Haddad won $32 million on a Lotto 6/49 ticket on June 28, 2008. (QMI Agency/Mark O'Neill, file)
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OTTAWA - Sam Haddad, multimillionaire, who has bought his ticket for Friday's monster Lotto Max jackpot ($50 million plus nine separate prizes of a million bucks each) has advice for the soon-to-be new members of the club he joined on June 28, 2008, when the Ottawa self-employed hardwood floor installer won $32 million on a Lotto 6/49 ticket.
"Expect the headaches. They advertise the freedom, they don't advertise the headaches. But don't go crazy. I'm living in the same old hillbilly house I lived in. My wife Denise is a hillbilly just like me."
Actually, it was $16 million Haddad won. His barber Mike Dettore got the other half. Unquestionably the biggest tip for a barber on a $10 haircut in the history of the world. Or any price haircut.
Sam had been going to Mike's shop for years and instead of giving him money for a tip, he'd give his close friend the latest lottery ticket he'd bought. Sam figures he's spent between $200,000 and $300,000 on tickets since the early 1970s, and up until 2008, had never won anything.
"I'm the same person I was before I won," says Sam, over coffee in a Tim Hortons. He's wearing an old non-descript windbreaker, plaid shirt, pants, boots. He's the same laid-back, perpetually smiling, take-life-as-it-is Sam. He and Denise still live in their plain $300,000 three-bedroom bungalow. They're not moving.
OK, Sam's smile is nicer. Denise's too. "We were able to get our teeth fixed properly -- $110,000 for implants. No problem."
Now, that's what they mean by the "freedom." For Sam Haddad, the freedom to quit his job as soon as he got his fortune, the freedom to do what he once did for a living, but whenever he damn well feels like it.
Sam and Denise have two children, Jamie, 34, Angie, 21. They're each now millionaires through Sam's largesse. "Before I won, I was having a hard time re-mortgaging my house. It was a nice feeling to just write a cheque, no worries."
It was a nice feeling, too, to pay off the mortgages of five struggling family members. And to give substantial amounts of money to some other family members, and friends who matter.
Sam and Denise went on a couple of cruises, bought a few new pieces of furniture for the house. That was about it. Well, except for the new $60,000 Cadillac CTS4 Sam bought and the $79,000 Mercedes bought by Denise, who, as a surprise, bought a girlfriend a $20,000 Nissan Centra to replace the beat-up, old, rattletrap she was driving.
The "headaches" today's winners can likely expect?
First, understand that Sam was, and is, under no obligation to give portions of his winnings to anybody.
"There are some family members, and friends, we've fallen out with because they either didn't get anything or tell us they didn't get enough. It's greed."
And there are the greedy "friends" they didn't even know they had.
There was the avalanche of solicitations from investment houses. And from charities. (He's given handsomely to a number of them.)
There were the letters and phone calls from strangers. "They have a way of finding you." There was the minister wanting $950,000 to finish building his church. The man wanting $140,000 to re-mortgage his house. The woman wanting $310,000 to buy back the condo she lost through gambling debts. The woman going through a divorce who wanted several hundred thousand to keep her house.
The woman who mailed him a big bag of print-out statements for multiple, different credit cards, and asking him to send her the small fortune to pay them off. "I got about three dozen letters and phone calls. With the calls I told them 'get lost.' With the letters, my first investment was a shredder."
Sam Haddad, who has invested his wealth diversely and expertly, smiles. "People look at how I live and they've said to me, 'We don't get it. You could be living in Florida, you could have a big mansion, you could have everything you want.'
"I tell them I do have everything I want. I don't need anything more. My advice is stay nice and simple. Money is only money. Only numbers in a bank account. Stay you. Stay the way you've always been. But get ready. There will be headaches."
