29 September 22

Lilydale man pleasantly sleepless over $250,000 Instant Scratch-Its top win

By Khat McIntyre-Intrachai

Updated 29 September 2022 - 2:23 pm,

first published at 29 September 2022 - 2:23 pm

A Lilydale dad’s weekly routine of treating himself to an Instant Scratch-Its ticket has delivered him a remarkable $250,000 top prize win, admitting he couldn’t sleep all night from excitement.

The Melburnian’s top prize-winning $10 Instant Scratch-Its ticket was purchased at Lilydale Village Lotto & News, Lilydale Village Shopping Centre, Shop 5/51 – 59 Anderson St, Lilydale.

“I was at home when I scratched it, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it,” he laughed when an official from The Lott reached out to him.

“I didn’t sleep a wink all night – I was tossing and turning thinking about it!

“I like to purchase a ticket every week. It’s a nice little routine for me!

“Sometimes I try my luck at different newsagencies, and this time I thought I’d give Lilydale Village Lotto & News a go.

“I’ve told some of my immediate family and they’re very happy for me!”

When asked how the victorious Victorian planned to spend his instant windfall, he immediately confessed he’d take his son overseas for a holiday.

“One of my boys is coming with me to go on an overseas holiday. We’ve been planning to go overseas for a long time, but the pandemic has gotten in the way,” he revealed.

“It will also help me boost my retirement plans too!”

Lilydale Village Lotto & News owner Dhaval Shah said he was very excited to have sold his first top prize Instant Scratch-Its ticket to a regular customer.

“I’ve never sold a top prize Instant Scratch-Its ticket before, and when the customer came in to claim his prize, I thought he was joking!” he said.

“We’re very happy for our customer! We’re very glad to see the win go to a lovely, regular and loyal customer in the local community, and I say that from the bottom of my heart!

“Congratulations to the winning man, you really deserve this win.”

In FY22, there were 139 Instant Scratch-Its top prize winners across The Lott’s jurisdictions who collectively took home more than $14.51 million in top prizes.

During this same time, Instant Scratch-Its players enjoyed more than 28.7 million wins across all prize tiers worth more than $261 million. This equates to almost three-quarters of a million dollars won on Instant Scratch-Its every day.