A couple of Mackay housemates are looking forward to a Christmas getaway like no other after their weekly Instant Scratch-Its tradition yielded them a $200,000 top-prize win.
The duo’s winning $15 Crosswords Book ticket was purchased at North Mackay News, 26 Evans Ave, North Mackay.
When an official from The Lott confirmed their newfound fortune, the winning pair confessed they initially thought they’d won $5,000, only to discover they’d actually won a glorious $200,000.
“We’re feeling extra good today!” one of the winning men laughed.
“We initially thought we’d won $5,000 and we were stoked with that.
“Little did we know we’d actually won $200,000! A little bit of a jump from what we originally thought.
“My flatmate and I each buy one Instant Scratch-Its ticket a week and share the games.
“We can’t believe we’ve won such a big prize – it’s surreal.
“We just keep pinching ourselves to check if it’s real.
“We’re going to book a cruise over Christmas and enjoy every second of it.
“It’s been a big year, and it will be nice to unwind.”
North Mackay News owner Raj Sundaresan said he couldn’t be happier to hear a local customer scored $200,000 from an Instant Scratch-Its ticket purchased at his outlet.
“It’s been a while since we’ve had a big win at our outlet, so it feels amazing to know we’ve changed someone's life again,” he said.
“Our customers are over the moon to hear a local person has won big just in time for Christmas.
“Congratulations to our winner! Thank you for supporting our store and we hope you have a magical Christmas.”
In FY24, there were 143 Instant Scratch-Its top prize winners across The Lott’s jurisdictions who collectively took home more than $12.12 million in top prizes.
During this same time, Instant Scratch-Its players enjoyed more than 26.4 million wins across all prize tiers worth more than $249.65 million. This equates to more than 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 FY24, more than 132.8 million winners took home more than $4.4 billion in prize money from their favourite games at The Lott, including Saturday Gold 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 $1.8 billion via state lottery taxes and donations to help community initiatives, such as hospitals, health research, disaster relief and education.