A Tamworth family man in his late 20s couldn’t stop shaking with delight after discovering he’d won $1,000 a week for the next 10 years on an Instant Scratch-Its ticket.
The top prize winning $10 Live the Life Instant Scratch-Its ticket was purchased at CTC South Tamworth, Shop 3, Southgate Shopping Centre, 4-10 Kathleen Street, South Tamworth.
“Oh my god! I was going to have a heart attack,” he told an official from The Lott.
“When I scratched the top prize, I thought to myself, ‘Wait, wait, hang on! Is this right?’.
“I was frantically reading the instructions on the back to see if I’d won, and I ran to my sister to see if I was right.
“It took a second to register that I’d won a thousand dollars a week for the next 10 years! I couldn’t stop shaking like a leaf – it’s pretty surreal.
“I was close to driving five hours to Sydney to claim the prize in person.
“While this type of money isn’t a lot for some people, I consider it life changing. It’s really made a drastic change in our lives.
“I’ve told my immediate family – parents, siblings and one or two friends. We’re going to celebrate all together on the weekend!”
When asked how he planned to spend his life-changing annuity prize, the winner revealed he would save it for a house deposit.
“I’ll be accruing the prize weekly to eventually put down a house deposit for my first family home!” he exclaimed.
“We’ve wanted to buy a property for so long now, and this has really brought it forward!
“It’s wonderful.”
CTC South Tamworth manager Stephen Briggs said his team were over the moon to have sold their first top prize Instant Scratch-Its ticket to a regular customer.
“We only started lotteries at our outlet a couple of years ago, and we’re so glad we did because it feels amazing to give back to the community when we sell a major prize,” he said.
“It’s our very first top prize Instant Scratch-Its ticket that we’ve sold here at CTC South Tamworth, and I can imagine it’s the start to many more!
“Congratulations to our regular customer on scoring a life-enhancing prize. We hope to see you back again soon!”
In 2021, there were 157 Instant Scratch-Its top prize winners across The Lott’s jurisdictions who collectively took home more than $10 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 $256.26 million. This equates to almost three-quarters of a million dollars won on Instant Scratch-Its every day.
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 2021, more than 130.8 million winners took home more than $3.79 billion in prize money from their favourite games at The Lott, including Saturday Lotto, Monday & Wednesday Lotto, Powerball, Oz Lotto, Set for Life, Lucky Lotteries, Keno, Super 66, Lotto Strike and Instant Scratch-Its.
Last financial year, Australia’s official lotteries contributed more than $1.5 billion via state lottery taxes and donations to help community initiatives, such as hospitals, health research, disaster relief and education.