A group of four workmates have had a great start to 2021 after scratching one of the top prizes of $10,000 on a $1 Instant Scratch-Its ticket they received as a welcome back to work gift.
The winning ticket was purchased at Racecourse Lucky Lotto, Shop 4, 338-390 Racecourse Road, Flemington.
Sharing her excitement with an official from The Lott, one team member recounted how the win came to be.
“This week was the first week we were all back in the office for the new year after we spent most of last year in lockdown,” she explained.
“I wanted to do something a bit fun as it was the first time we had all been together in months, so I went to the local newsagent and bought my team $10 worth of scratchies each.
“We started scratching them when one of my colleagues said ‘how does this work if we win’.
“I said ‘we’ll just cash them in for new ones and keep going until we run out of money’.
“A few minutes later he said, ‘I don’t think we’ll run out of money for quite some time’ and showed me the ticket.
“I couldn’t believe it. Wow. It was crazy!
“It was a great way to start back at work after the crappy year that was 2020!”
When asked how the team planned to enjoy their instant windfall, the thrilled winner explained they had already celebrated their prize.
“We went out for a nice long lunch yesterday!” she declared.
“We went into the city to a nice restaurant and treated ourselves to a delicious meal.
“The rest we are going to split four ways!
“It’s a good feeling coming into work and leaving with $2,500 I can tell you!”
Racecourse Lucky Lotto owner Tuan Nguyen said he was thrilled his outlet had sold a major Instant Scratch-Its prize.
“We’ve been telling all of our customers about the win whenever we have a chance!” he exclaimed.
“This is the biggest Instant Scratch-Its top prize we’ve ever sold. Before that, it was a $999 win.
“We are a busy store, and we’ve sold lots of prizes over the past couple of years, including five division one winning entries in 2020.
“We hope to make more of our customers happy winners. Hopefully, it is our customers’ turn to win again soon.
“We hope the winners enjoys their prize!”
In 2020, there were 177 Instant Scratch-Its top prize winners across The Lott’s jurisdictions who collectively took home more than $16 million in top prizes.
During this same time, Instant Scratch-Its players enjoyed more than 32.3 million wins across all prize tiers worth more than $281.17 million. This equates to more than three-quarters of a million dollars won on Instant Scratch-Its every day.