A Drouin man spent his Sunday morning walking in stunned circles after discovering he scored a division one prize of $847,000 in the weekend’s TattsLotto draw.
The happy man held one of the six division one winning entries nationally in TattsLotto draw 4077, drawn Saturday 15 August 2020. Each entry took home a division one prize of $847,199.23.
Sharing his joy with an official from the Lott this afternoon, the happy man recounted the moment he discovered the life-changing win.
“It’s fantastic! It’s certainly made life a little easier!” he exclaimed.
“I was just at home with my wife going through my Sunday morning ritual of checking my TattsLotto numbers.
“I scanned the ticket on the app, and it came up that I had won a big prize.
“I thought ‘Bingo!’ and showed my wife. She had to read it a few times over before she believed it.
“I just kept scanning the ticket to make sure it was real.
“We spent the morning walking in circles and double-checking the ticket.
“It was amazing!”
The thrilled winner revealed he had been eagerly waiting for that winning moment for nearly four decades.
“When I told my kids the news, they said it was about time I had won division one!” he laughed.
“I’ve been playing every week for nearly 40 years, I reckon.
“I’ve never won anything like this. I had a big win of a few hundred dollars about eight years ago and I was pretty happy with that!
“This is just fantastic!”
When asked how he planned to enjoy his division one prize, the stoked bloke said he was looking forward to accelerating his retirement plans.
“Well I’m pretty close to retirement age, so most of it will go into my super,” he declared.
“I’ll give some to my children too. I’d love to help them out.
“With everything happening at the moment, it’s come at a good time. It’s good to have something to fall back on if we need it.
“As long as our health is ok, everything is excellent.
“I’ll probably look into slowing down at work and taking a step back to let someone else take over so I can retire a few years earlier than planned.”
The regular player, who wishes to remain anonymous, purchased his 12-game QuickPick entry at Drouin Newsagency & Tatts, 93 Princes Way, Drouin.
Drouin Newsagency & Tatts owner Vanita Haley said she was excited to discover her outlet had sold a division one winning entry.
“Wahoo! Oh my goodness! We’re so excited!” she exclaimed.
“After we received the email, we raced down to the store to check the memo just to make sure. We’ve been waiting for years to sell a division one winning entry!
“We’ve been telling all of our customers we’ve sold a division one winning entry via our social media and we’ve decorated the store with balloons and posters.
“Our customers are just as excited as we are! Customers have been commenting that they are excited a local has won it. It’s great for a country town!
“This is the first division one winning entry we’ve sold since we took over the business six years ago. However, the business has been in operation for 46 years, and we think there have been seven division one winning entries sold in that time.
“Congratulations to our winner! We hope it’s everything you have dreamed of!
“We can’t wait to sell the next one!”
Last financial year, TattsLotto created 127 millionaires across Australia.
The winning numbers in TattsLotto draw 4077 on Saturday 15 August 2020 were 16, 34, 41, 35, 29 and 13, while the supplementary numbers were 45 and 12.
Across Australia, there were six division one winning entries in TattsLotto draw 4077 – three from Queensland, two from Victoria and one from New South Wales.
The Lott’s division one winning tally has now reached 249 so far this calendar year, including 100 won by Tatts customers.
Between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2020, there were 318 division one winning TattsLotto entries across Australia, which collectively won more than $346.12 million.