A blue-collar worker from Balmoral got a festive shock when she discovered a forgotten gifted Instant Scratch-Its ticket worth $100,000 buried at the bottom of her handbag.
The Southern Highlands resident’s winning $5 Merry Christmas Instant Scratch-Its ticket was purchased at Figtree Newsagency, Shop 29, Westfield Shoppingtown, Cnr Princes Highway & The Avenue, Figtree.
When speaking with an official from The Lott, the hardworking woman shared she’d received the winning ticket as an early Christmas present late last month.
“I’m still in shock!” the gleeful winner exclaimed.
“I just can’t wrap my head around it.
“It was a Christmas present I received last month, and I’ve been carrying it around in my handbag completely oblivious.
“The other day something reminded me that I still needed to scratch the ticket.
“Once I’d scratched the ticket and realised I’d won $100,000, I started to shake.
“I couldn’t believe I’d had such a valuable Instant Scratch-Its ticket just sitting in my handbag. My husband couldn’t believe it either.
“I’ll never leave a ticket in my handbag again! Can you imagine if I’d never remembered?!
“I’m working all the way through Christmas, so this is the best Christmas present ever!
“Most of it will go towards our mortgage, but I think we might need to take a holiday at some point.
“Cheers to all my fellow blue-collar workers working through Christmas.”
In FY24, there were 143 Instant Scratch-Its top prize winners across The Lott’s jurisdictions who collectively took home more than $12.12 million in top prizes.
During this same time, Instant Scratch-Its players enjoyed more than 26.4 million wins across all prize tiers worth more than $249.65 million. This equates to more than half a million winners and more than $4.8 million won on Instant Scratch-Its each week.
Every month, Instant Scratch-Its’ 2nd Chance Draw gives you another chance to turn your eligible non-winning Instant Scratch-Its into a winner. Visit thelott.com to enter this month’s 2nd Chance Draw.
The official home of Australia’s lotteries, The Lott operates and markets Australia’s leading lottery games customers know and love creating everyday winners, winning every day.
In FY24, more than 132.8 million winners took home more than $4.4 billion in prize money from their favourite games at The Lott, including Saturday Lotto, Weekday Windfall, Powerball, Oz Lotto, Set for Life, Lucky Lotteries, Keno (SA), Super 66, Lotto Strike and Instant Scratch-Its.
Last financial year, Australia’s official lotteries contributed more than $1.8 billion via state lottery taxes and donations to help community initiatives, such as hospitals, health research, disaster relief and education.
