A generous St Albans Park couple admitted they can’t wait to pay their prize forward after discovering they won $25,000 on an Instant Scratch-Its ticket.
The winning $2 ticket was purchased at Bellarine Village Lotto, Shop 12, Bellarive Village, Bellarine Highway, Newcomb.
Speaking with an official from The Lott, the overjoyed couple explained how they came to hold the winning ticket.
“My husband and I buy a few scratchies every week, and then we put them in a draw, and each month we get them all out at once and scratch them,” the winning woman explained.
“This ticket was probably sitting in here for weeks, and we had no idea!
“I scratched the winning ticket and saw the prize, and I thought ‘No, it can’t be’. I probably looked at it about ten times, but I couldn’t believe it.
“So I asked my husband to check, and he said ‘Nope, not a winner’. But then he looked at it again, and he said ‘No, wait’.
“We just stared at each other! We had huge smiles on our faces.
“For us, this is like winning a million dollars! We couldn’t be happier.
“It was the most wonderful surprise.
“We don’t have a lot of money, so it will make a world of difference to us.”
When asked how they planned to enjoy their pize, it was others they thought of first.
“We want to go and buy vouchers for our neighbours and pop it in their mailboxes at night, so they don’t know,” she explained.
“I am not going to write our names on them. We’re just going to do it anonymously, as a little surprise.
“Then, I really want to pay it forward. Once I had someone in front of me buy a coffee for me. I was so surprised when I got to the counter, and they told me I didn’t need to pay.
“I do it every now and again, but I want to do that more now.
“It was such a lovely thing for someone to do for me, and it’s the best feeling being able to do that for other people.
“We will also use the prize to fix up our backyard.
“We also want to take our neighbours out for a nice dinner. We want to celebrate with a group, that’s always the most fun.
“It’d be nice to go to Tasmania too for a week. It will be a road trip, because we don’t want to leave our dog at home!”
Bellarine Village Lotto owner Ben Kelberg said he couldn’t be more thrilled for the winning pair.
“When the customer bought the scratchie back in to collect she wasn’t 100% sure if she had a win or not,” he explained.
“We were all so excited when we checked it and saw a $25,000 win!
“We have been busy telling everyone about the win and most just can’t believe a customer won $25,000 from a $2 scratchie.
“It’s just incredible.
“This is our 10th major prize win since we took over seven years ago.
“But it’s the first time we sold a top prize Instant Scratch-Its ticket, so it’s even more exciting.
“We can’t wait to sell more!”
Between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2020, there were 151 Instant Scratch-Its top prize winners across The Lott’s jurisdictions who collectively took home more than $11.8 million in top prizes.
During this same time, Instant Scratch-Its players enjoyed more than 29.1 million wins across all prize tiers worth more than $235.25 million. This equates to more than half a million dollars won on Instant Scratch-Its every day.
