A Leumeah tradesman has walked off his job with no intention of returning after discovering he held the winning $50 million Oz Lotto ticket officials had been searching for.
The overjoyed winner held the only division one winning entry in Oz Lotto draw 1339, drawn Tuesday 15 October 2019, and takes home the entire $50 million division one prize.
As his winning entry was not registered to a Players Club card, NSW Lotteries officials had no way of contacting him to break the incredible news.
This afternoon, the Sydney player checked his ticket after hearing about a mystery winner in his region. That’s the moment he discovered he had won the massive $50 million Oz Lotto prize.
Speaking with a NSW Lotteries official this afternoon, the stoked bloke recalled how he discovered his life-changing win.
“Oh my god! I don’t believe it! I’m crying and laughing! Oh my god!” he exclaimed through happy tears.
“I just don’t believe it! I’m speechless. I can’t believe this has happened to me.
“I was just at work and heard that the division one prize had not been claimed.
“So I got my ticket and googled the numbers and saw that I had all of the winning numbers.
“I still wasn’t sure I’d won, so I called my daughter and asked her to check the numbers and she said to me ‘oh my god dad, I think you’ve won!’.
“As soon as she said that I just walked out from work. I didn’t say anything. I was just thinking ‘oh my god’.
“I just can’t believe this. I need to go home, have a sit down and just calm down.
“Gosh I have a good life!”
When asked how he planned to enjoy his multi-million-dollar windfall, the keen fisherman admitted he’d be retiring from work and living the Aussie dream.
“This is just so much money,” he admitted.
“I want to help all of my family, my wife’s family and my friends.
“I am definitely not going to work.
“I want to buy a house by the beach and spend all my days fishing and golfing.
“But money is not everything to me. My friends and family mean more to me than money, so I want to use it wisely and I want to share it with them.”
The winner, who wishes to remain anonymous, purchased his winning entry at Leumeah Newsagency, 4 O’Sullivan Road, Leumeah.
Leumeah Newsagency owner Ben Van Cao said he was ecstatic his winning customer had finally been united with his prize.
“It’s fantastic news and we’re very happy,” he said.
“This is a small community. We look after them and they look after us.
“It means a lot for a big prize like this to land in our community. People here work hard and they deserve to win.
“It has been such a busy day as everyone has been coming in to check their tickets, hoping it was them. It has been a while since we’ve sold a division one winning entry, so we did feel we were overdue. What an amazing winning ticket to sell!
“We wish our winner all the very best with their prize. Congratulations!”
This is the 10th division one winning entry in Oz Lotto so far this year. These 10 division one winning entries have shared $285 million in division one prize money.
In the 12 months to 30 June 2019, there were 17 division one winning Oz Lotto entries across Australia, which collectively won more than $334 million. During this time, the biggest Oz Lotto jackpot was $80 million on 25 June 2019, which was won by two division one winning entries that took home $40 million each.
The winning numbers in Oz Lotto draw 1339 were 5, 32, 22, 13, 20, 25 and 42, while the supplementary numbers were 21 and 23.
The Lott’s division one winning tally across all Australian lottery games has now reached 291 so far this calendar year.