A generous Frankston grandfather has had a birthday to remember after scratching one of the top prizes of $10,000 on a $1 Instant Scratch-Its ticket.
The winning $1 Instant Scratch-Its ticket was purchased from 7 Stars Lucky Lotto, Shop 20, Centro Somerville, 49 Eramosa West Road, Somerville.
Speaking with a Tatts official this morning to confirm his prize, the happy man shared his joy at discovering the top prize win.
“It’s a little bit surreal – things like this don’t happen to me!” he laughed.
“I’ve never heard of it happening to anyone and everyone I’ve told about it haven’t heard of it happening either.
“Now I can say I am the person these things happen to!”
The winner recounted how he came to hold the winning Instant Scratch-Its ticket.
“I got a few tickets for my birthday from a family member,” he explained.
“I left them on the bench while we went out for dinner and when we came home to have some cake I thought I’d better scratch them to see if I had won.
“I scratched the first one and won a free ticket. I thought ‘that’s alright!’.
“I scratched another one and won $2 and thought that was pretty good too.
“I got to the second last ticket and saw I had scratched $10,000 and I thought ‘That can’t be right! There has to be a catch’.
“I gave it to my daughter to take back to the place she purchased it to check. They checked it about five times at the newsagent to make sure it was real!
“She cashed in the $2 ticket while she was there and won $10 on that so it must have been a lucky batch for us!”
The winner also revealed that gifting Instant Scratch-Its tickets for birthday presents was a bit of a tradition in his family.
“I gave my father some scratchies for his birthday every year before he passed away and I’ll be popping some in my nephew's card for his upcoming birthday,” he explained.
“It’s good to continue the tradition!”
When asked how he planned to enjoy his instant windfall, the thrilled winner confessed he hoped to spoil his grandson with a visit to the happiest place on Earth.
“It’s money we would never have had so I’ve just got to try and think about what we’ll do with it. It might sit in the bank for a while,” he revealed.
“I want to go on a decent holiday. I’ve promised I’d take my grandson to Disneyland in Orlando. He knows more about where he wants to go than I do!”
7 Stars Lucky Lotto owner Po Hok Kyoy said he was thrilled his outlet had finally sold a major prize.
“I’ve been waiting to sell a top prize winning Instant Scratch-Its since I started with Tatts five years ago!” he exclaimed.
“We are so excited! We have been telling all of our customers that we’ve sold a major prize and we’ll be putting posters up in store.
“We wish our customer all the best with their prize!”
In 2018, there were 155 Instant Scratch-Its top prize winners across the Lott’s jurisdictions who collectively took home more than $14.26 million.
During this same time, there were 25,716,051 winners across all Instant Scratch-Its prize tiers in the Lott’s jurisdictions who collectively took home more than $205.8 million.
It can happen in an instant. It can happen to you.
