A Hove man is still pinching himself after leaving his fate in the hands of a friendly cashier, only to win a top prize-winning Instant Scratch-Its ticket worth $250,000.
The Adelaide resident’s winning $10 Triple Match Instant Scratch-Its ticket was purchased at Blooms Chemist Castle Plaza, Shop 4-7 Castle Plaza, 992 South Rd, Edwardstown.
When an official from The Lott confirmed the win with the gleeful man, he confessed he initially almost binned the ticket before realising it was a winner.
“I’m excellent today! I feel like I’m still dreaming,” he said.
“It’s a funny story actually. When I bought the Instant Scratch-Its ticket, the woman serving me asked which one I would like and I jokingly said, ‘Give me the winning one please!’.
“She replied, ‘I’ll try my best.’. Turned out it really was the winning one!
“When I got home and scratched it, it actually took me ages to work out because if I buy one, I usually get a different sort, but this one’s instructions were a little different.
“I kept reading it and reading it, and I almost threw it out, but luckily, I scratched the code at the bottom of the ticket which showed I had a winner.
“Thank you so much. It’s still sinking in.”
When asked how he planned to use his quarter of a million dollars, the delighted father shared he wasn’t ready to make any immediate decisions but had some plans in mind.
"We're going to sit on it for a bit and take our time,” he said.
“We’ll give some to our kids and help them out. None of us has had it easy, so it’s huge for us.
“We’ll put some away and it’ll come in handy for retirement too.”
Blooms Chemist Castle Plaza owner Roy Young said he and the team were over the moon for their winning customer.
“We’re elated and excited for the winner. It's created such a buzz in our outlet, everyone is talking about who it could be!” he said.
“We have sold lots of smaller prizes, but this is our first top prize on an Instant Scratch-Its ticket.
“We also sold a division one wining syndicate entry in 2023 and in 2022, we sold a 1st Prize winning entry of $100,000 in a Lucky Lotteries draw.
“Congratulations to our lucky winner, we hope to see you in-store again soon.”
In FY25, there were 151 Instant Scratch-Its top prize winners across The Lott’s jurisdictions who collectively took home more than $12.5 million in top prizes.
During this same time, Instant Scratch-Its players enjoyed more than 25.3 million wins across all prize tiers worth more than $253 million. This equates to almost 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 FY25, more than 123.8 million winners took home more than $4.1 billion in prize money from their favourite games at The Lott, including Saturday X 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 $1.66 billion via state lottery taxes and donations to help community initiatives, such as hospitals, health research, disaster relief and education. As part of its commitment to supporting the community, The Lott proudly supports Play For Purpose, the not-for-profit charity raffle that gives Australians the chance to win while helping more than 500 causes across the country.