A Pialba woman has confessed she had a close call, nearly discarding her precious top prize Instant Scratch-Its ticket worth a life-enhancing $10,000.
The Hervey Bay resident's $1 Beat the Heat ticket was purchased at Nextra Bay Plaza, Shop 7-8 Bay Plaza, 27 Torquay Road, Pialba.
When an official from The Lott confirmed her instant prize, the relieved woman shared how she had nearly missed out on her top prize win.
“I’m still trying to wrap my head around the $10,000 win!” she cheered.
“It’s been such a whirlwind.
“I bought the ticket on a whim; just wanting to have a scratch for a bit of fun.
“At the time, I bought a few tickets and tossed them in my handbag.
“It wasn’t until I was cleaning out my handbag the other day and nearly chucked them in the bin that I realised I still hadn’t scratched them.
“It was such a close call!
“It honestly feels like the universe had my back.
“My car is completely broken at the moment, so the prize couldn’t have come at a better time.
“Now I can fix my car, which is a total life saviour.”
Nextra Bay Plaza owner Michelle Jordan shared she had goosebumps hearing her outlet had sold a top prize-winning ticket.
“We were all in a bit of shock to hear we’d sold a top prize-winning Instant Scratch-Its ticket,” she said.
“It’s our first big winner of any kind, so it gave us all goosebumps.
“We’ll be spreading the news far and wide and decorating our store.
“Huge congratulations to our special winner!”
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 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 $1.8 billion via state lottery taxes and donations to help community initiatives, such as hospitals, health research, disaster relief and education.