A Burwood East man has discovered he has been walking around for nearly a month unaware he was a millionaire after being ‘too distracted’ to check his TattsLotto ticket.
The happy Melburnian held one of the five division one winning entries nationally in TattsLotto draw 4069 on Saturday 18 July 2020. Each entry won a division one prize of $1,053,905.78.
The ticket was unregistered, so officials from the Lott had no way of contacting the winner to break the news. Instead, they had to wait for the ticketholder to come forward to claim his prize.
Sharing his joy with an official from the Lott this morning, the winner revealed the reason for the delay in discovering the life-changing news.
“Wahoo! Thank you very, very much! It feels really bloody good to be a millionaire! I can tell you that! I was nowhere close to being one before!” he laughed.
“I didn’t realise I had a winning ticket until I went in to buy a new one. I saw the old one sitting in my wallet and thought I’d better check it.
“When I heard the noise go off, I thought ‘Wacko! I must have won $20 or something!’.
“They told me that I had won something much, much better than that!
“I buy a ticket about once a fortnight, but I got distracted this month with everything going on. I hadn’t got around to getting another one.
“I’d just been bumbling through. Everything is a bit airy-fairy at the moment.
“We can’t do too much at the moment, but when I got home I did have a rum and coke to celebrate!”
When asked how he planned to enjoy life as a newly-minted millionaire, the thrilled winner admitted he had already been searching for his dream home.
“I’m going to get myself a little unit and that’s it! That will set me up!” he declared.
“Hopefully, after that, I won’t have to work too hard, either.
“I can’t wait until that money lands in my bank account. It will be a very good feeling I can assure you. I can hardly wait.
“We can’t go out at the moment to look at houses, but I’ll certainly be spending the afternoon online looking at places to buy!
“Once lockdown is over, I’ll be ready to go!”
The winning entry was purchased at East Burwood Newsagency, Shop 13, 10-40 Burwood Highway, Burwood East.
East Burwood Newasgnecy owner John Zhang said he was thrilled his winner had been united with his prize.
“Congratulations to our winner on his major win!” he exclaimed.
“It’s so great to hear it is a local to the area and a regular customer.
“We appreciate his support over the past three years since we took over the business.
“We are currently going through this tough pandemic situation in Victoria, which has made everyone concerned. We hope this win can bring a smile and happiness to all the people around us.
“We wish the winner all the best with his prize!”
Last financial year, TattsLotto created 127 millionaires across Australia.
The winning numbers in TattsLotto draw 4069 on Saturday 18 July 2020 were 35, 21, 2, 43, 18 and 22, while the supplementary numbers were 10 and 37.
Across Australia, there were five division one winning entries in TattsLotto draw 4069 – two each from South Australia and Western Australia, and one from Victoria.
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.