A Charters Towers woman has unwrapped the ultimate early birthday present after scratching her way to a sensational Instant Scratch-Its top prize of $1,000 a week for the next five years.
The top prize-winning $5 Live the Life Instant Scratch-Its ticket was purchased at Townplaza News & Gifts, Shop 7 Town Plaza Shopping Centre, 41 Gill Street, Charters Towers.
When an official from The Lott called to confirm the life-enhancing news, the winning woman shared the annuity prize would allow her to turn her long-held dreams into reality.
“I can’t believe it. It doesn’t feel real!” she cheered.
“You’re not going to believe it, but I scratched the top prize win just two days before my birthday. I guess you could call it an early birthday present.
“I’m still riding a wave of excitement, and I honestly can’t wrap my head around it.
“It’s certainly going to make a big difference in our life.
“We’re in the middle of renovating our house, so it’s going to help speed things up.
“My husband and I have always dreamt of cruising around Australia and being able to say we’ve done the Aussie lap.
“Once the money starts rolling in, we’ll be able to make our dream become a reality.”
Townplaza News & Gifts owner Rajendra Adhikari shared he was proud to discover his outlet has been a part of an exciting moment for a local customer.
“We were all thrilled to hear our outlet had sold a top prize-winning Instant Scratch-Its ticket. It’s a real honour to be a part of such a life-changing moment for one of our customers,” he said.
“It was only two weeks ago that we sold a division two winning entry in Saturday Gold Lotto, so it really feels like we’re on a winning streak.
“We’ll be celebrating the good news in-store, and we’re certain our customers are going to be excited.
“We warmly congratulate our winner and wish them all the success and happiness. It’s truly wonderful to know a ticket purchased at our outlet will bring so much joy to someone’s life.”
In FY25, there were 151 Instant Scratch-Its top prize winners across The Lott’s jurisdictions who collectively took home more than $12.5 million in top prizes.
During this same time, Instant Scratch-Its players enjoyed more than 25.3 million wins across all prize tiers worth more than $253 million. This equates to almost 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 FY25, more than 123.8 million winners took home more than $4.1 billion in prize money from their favourite games at The Lott, including Saturday Gold 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 $1.66 billion via state lottery taxes and donations to help community initiatives, such as hospitals, health research, disaster relief and education. As part of its commitment to supporting the community, The Lott proudly supports Play For Purpose, the not-for-profit charity raffle that gives Australians the chance to win while helping more than 500 causes across the country.