A woman from The Entrance is having a golden week after coming forward as the weekend’s mystery winner who scored more than $2.5 million in Saturday Lotto.
The Central Coast resident held one of the two division one winning entries nationally in Saturday Lotto draw 4521, drawn Saturday 16 November 2024. Each division one winning entry scored $2,519,100.97.
As the winning woman was not a part of The Lott Members club and had not registered her entry to a player card or online account, officials from The Lott had no way of contacting her and had to wait for her to check her ticket and come forward.
The happy winner shared her delight when having her multi million-dollar prize confirmed and admitted she hadn’t let her ticket out of her sight since checking it.
“It’s terrific! It’s great!” she cheered.
“I’m still flabbergasted. I was speechless when I checked my ticket, and I still am!
“I’ve played regularly for years and years and you get used to checking your ticket and getting just a small win, so when I realised I had won division one, it was completely unexpected.
“I’ve been carrying around my ticket like it’s pure gold. I’m petrified of losing it.
“It’s certainly wonderful news.”
Amid the excitement, the jubilant mum was too stunned to make any immediate decisions with her prize but had some potential ideas brewing.
“I’m not sure my brain is working at the moment. I can’t think at all,” she laughed.
“I’ll be able to share it with the family and really help the kids. It’s come just in time for Christmas too.
“I’m thinking we’ll do a big family holiday eventually! I would love to go overseas someplace nice. Maybe Europe!”
The New South Wales woman’s winning entry was purchased at The Entrance Newsagency, 185 The Entrance Road, The Entrance.
The Entrance Newsagency owner, Blake Gavljak, said news of the big win was spreading quickly around town, and his family-owned business had started celebrations.
“Before the weekend, we had never been fortunate in the 10 years that we have owned the business to sell a division one winning entry!” he said.
“In the last 10 years, we have seen a lot of customers be one number off winning division one, but this is the first time we have had the opportunity to be a part of changing a customer's life.
“Firstly, would love to congratulate the winner and hope they have a prosperous future. Secondly, as our family is extremely competitive, we would love to know if it was me, mum or dad that sold the winning ticket!
“As we are a one hundred percent family-run business, we had a nice family dinner together to celebrate this milestone.”
The winning numbers in Saturday Lotto draw 4521 on 16 November 2024 were 6, 5, 8, 44, 29 and 38, while the supplementary numbers were 1 and 9.
Across Australia, there were two division one winning entries in Saturday Lotto draw 4521 – one each in New South Wales and Western Australia.
The Lott’s division one winning tally has now reached 391 so far in 2024, including 114 won by NSW Lotteries customers.
In FY24, Saturday Lotto created 158 millionaires across Australia.
During this time, there were 291 division one winning Saturday Lotto entries across Australia that collectively won more than $436 million.