An Innisfail couple have turned their spare change into $500,000 after scratching the top prize on a $20 Casino Gold Instant Scratch-Its ticket.
The winning ticket was purchased at Cignall Innisfail, 180 Edith Street, Innisfail.
Sharing his excitement with an official from the Lott this morning, the thrilled husband revealed how tidying up his loose change inspired the win.
“I had been counting up all the spare change I had laying around the house and once I counted it all up, I realised I had $40,” he explained.
“My wife and I like to play scratchies every now and then, so I decided to head down to the local newsagents and buy one for her and one for myself.
“We sat together that afternoon scratching them, and my wife had to ask me to finish scratching hers because her hands were sore.
“That’s when I saw we had all the right symbols. I couldn’t believe we had won. I scratched the self-check panel just to make sure. I made my son check the ticket too.
“My wife started crying happy tears. It was a very good feeling!”
When asked how they planned to enjoy their instant windfall, the happy couple declared they would help their family and go on a holiday.
“Well we’ve got a few kids, so we’d love to help them out,” the husband said.
“We will buy them a new car each and things like that.
“We are retired so we’d love to travel once the virus goes away. It would be good to get out there and go away for a few days.”
Cignall Innisfail owner Ian Hester said he was thrilled to have sold another Instant Scratch-Its top prize.
“We’ve had a bit of a winning streak with Instant Scrach-Its top prizes. We’ve managed to sell some big prizes over the past four or five years,” he explained. “We’ve sold a top prize worth $1 million and a top prize worth $250,000 so we are thrilled to have sold another major Instant Scratch-Its top prize.
“All of our customers are so happy for us. They’ve been trying their luck on Instant Scratch-Its since they found out, hoping that the next top prize we sell will be to them.
“Congratulations to our winners! It couldn’t have gone to a nicer family!”
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.