A Croydon mum can’t wait to spoil her daughter with an early Christmas present of a brand new bike after scratching one of the top prizes of $100,000 on a $5 Crosswords Instant Scratch-Its ticket.
The winning ticket was purchased at Tobacco Station – Kilsyth, Shop 2, Churinga Village Shopping Centre, 540 Mount Dandenong Road, Kilsyth.
Sharing her joy with an official from the Lott, the thrilled winner recounted the moment she discovered she was $100,000 richer.
“I only realised I won $100,000 when I claimed my prize,” she explained.
“I’m still getting my mind around it. It’s absolutely crazy.
“I always buy Crosswords tickets because when I turned 18, that was the first type of ticket I bought and I won $100 on it at the time.
“I’ve always thought I had good luck on these tickets and they give me 15 minutes of peace and quiet when I scratch them.
“I scratched this one and thought I had only scratched nine words, which is the prize of $10,000.
“I even got my friend to check it, and she saw nine words too.
“I went to my local outlet, and he confirmed it was a major prize but didn’t say how much it was.
“It wasn’t until I came in to claim it that they told me I had won $100,000!”
When asked how she planned to enjoy her instant windfall, the winner revealed the change in prize money significantly altered her plans.
“When I thought I had only won $10,000, I thought ‘Great! That will pay off a few bills and go towards a new car’,” she laughed.
“But now I’ll be able to buy a house for my daughter and me. I thought I’d have to wait years for it to be a possibility.
“I’ll be able to put a deposit down on a house and buy myself a new car as well.
“I’m also going to buy my daughter a bike. She’s been asking, and I was going to save it for Christmas, but now I’ll be able to give it to her sooner!”
Tobacco Station – Kilsyth owner Darren D’Alberto said it was a thrill when the winner checked her ticket in store.
“She came in to check her ticket to see if she had won, and it was great to tell her it was too big of a prize for us to pay out!” he exclaimed.
“It’s the first Instant Scratch-Its top prize we’ve ever sold, so we are thrilled.
“We hear of other outlets selling them, so it’s great to have one of our own.
“We’ve been telling all of our customers, and they are very excited for us.
“We are all hoping we sell another one again soon!
“Congratulations to our winner! We wish her all the best!”
Between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2020, there were 151 Instant Scratch-Its top prize winners across the Lott’s jurisdictions who collectively took home more than $11.8 million in top prizes.
During this same time, Instant Scratch-Its players enjoyed more than 29.1 million wins across all prize tiers worth more than $235.25 million. This equates to more than half a million dollars won on Instant Scratch-Its every day.