11 January 24

Beerwah man’s holiday spirit continues after gifted Instant Scratch-Its ticket delivers $100,000 top prize

By Khat McIntyre-Intrachai

Updated 11 January 2024 - 10:38 am,

first published at 11 January 2024 - 10:38 am

A Beerwah man has unwrapped one of the greatest gifts of all during the festive season  – an Instant Scratch-Its ticket that bagged him a free ticket with a $100,000 top prize.

The $5 Instant Scratch-Its ticket was from Beerwah Newsagency, Shop 9, Beerwah Market Place, Peachester Road, Beerwah.

“I’m feeling great!” the winning man laughed when officials from The Lott reached out this morning.

“I actually don’t play often but we were gifted a bunch of Instant Scratch-Its tickets from friends and family over Christmas.

“We scratched them over the holiday period and finally got around to cashing them in.

“One of the prizes we got was a free $5 ticket and so we got that one, scratched it, and there it was!

“One hundred thousand dollars! We couldn’t believe it.

“It’s a wonderful start to the year!

“I’m not sure how we’ll use our prize yet, but I think a nice dinner to celebrate will certainly be on the cards.”

Beerwah Newsagency owner Les Townsend said he and the team were ecstatic for the victorious winner and wished him all the best for the future.

“We’re elated! We have been waiting to sell a top prize or division one for a long time now!” he said.

“Our previous win was on a $1 Instant Scratch-Its ticket in 2015! We anticipate this is the end of our drought and the start of a winning streak!

“We were lucky enough to share in the winning locals’ excitement when they presented the ticket in store.

“We are just so incredibly happy for them. They are regulars so we can’t wait to see their bright faces visit again soon.”

In 2023, there were 144 Instant Scratch-Its top prize winners across The Lott’s jurisdictions who collectively took home more than $12.1 million in top prizes.

During this same time, Instant Scratch-Its players enjoyed more than 26.76 million wins across all prize tiers worth more than $249.17 million. This equates to more than half a million winners a week and about $700,000 won on Instant Scratch-Its every day.