Despite spending hours checking and rechecking his winning Instant Scratch-Its ticket, a Tweed Heads man admits he won’t truly believe he’s won a $100,000 top prize until he sees it in his bank account.
The top prize winning $5 Crosswords ticket was purchased at IGA Tweed Heads, 99 Kennedy Drive, Shops 7-9, Tweed Heads.
Speaking with an official from The Lott this morning, the New South Wales man described the moment he revealed the top prize win.
“I really love the Instant Scratch-Its Crosswords tickets. I play them quite regularly. They’re my favourite,” he shared.
“When I first scratched the winning ticket, I couldn’t believe it. I sat there, staring at the ticket for hours, checking it repeatedly.
“I didn’t want to tell anyone until I knew for sure. But I couldn’t keep it from my wife. I was too excited!
“When I told her the news, she was very overwhelmed.
“She kept telling me that it was a novelty ticket or some kind of scam. She couldn’t believe it and I really couldn’t believe it either.
“After it was confirmed, I felt relief more than anything. I was quite nervous waiting to see if I really had won the top prize.
“A win like this completely changes your life! This will do wonders.
“It’s a really special win, especially because it’s right before Christmas. It’s magnificent!
“We are really pleased. We are going to go to a fancy restaurant to celebrate this weekend.”
When asked how he planned to enjoy his prize, the overwhelmed winner admitted the news was still sinking in.
“It’s completely unbelievable,” he explained.
“Even though we know it’s true, we’re still struggling to believe it.
“I think we will have to wait until we see the money in the bank to make any plans.
“But it’s going to be put to good use! It’ll make for a very nice holiday season.”
The IGA Tweed Heads team are ecstatic for their winner and wish him all the best with his prize.
In FY21, there were 176 Instant Scratch-Its top prize winners across The Lott’s jurisdictions who collectively took home more than $14.17 million in top prizes.
During this same time, Instant Scratch-Its players enjoyed more than 31.2 million wins across all prize tiers worth more than $274.31 million. This equates to more than $750,000 won on Instant Scratch-Its every day.
