A Wetherill Park man has only just realised he’s been carrying a Lotto ticket worth more than $1 million in his wallet for almost two months.
The Sydney player held one of the five division one winning entries across Australia in Saturday Lotto draw 4197, drawn Saturday 9 October 2021. Each division one winning entry scored $1,234,399.86.
The winning entry was unregistered, which means officials from The Lott had no way of contacting the winner to break the life-changing news. Instead, they had to wait for the ticketholder to come forward to claim their prize.
Speaking with an official from The Lott this morning, the New South Wales man relayed how he came to discover his million-dollar win.
“I had no idea I was a millionaire this whole time! It’s crazy,” he laughed.
“I was going to buy another Lotto ticket and so I went and checked some other tickets I’d bought a few weeks back.
“When the staff member scanned the ticket and told me they thought I’d won division one, I kept saying, ‘What? Why are you saying this to me? Are you sure?’.
“I went very quiet after that. I couldn’t believe it! I was very shocked.
“When I told my wife, she cried a lot. She was very emotional, whereas I was very shocked.
“We’re still trying to wrap our heads around the news.
“I can’t believe we’re millionaires! We’ve been dreaming of this moment.
“It feels like we’re floating on cloud nine.”
“I think we will use it to buy ourselves a small house.
“We’ll definitely plan an overseas holiday next year too, and the rest we will save for the future.”
The winning entry was purchased at Wetherill Park Newsagency, Shop 15 Wetherill Park Market Town, 1024 The Horsley Drive, Wetherill Park.
Wetherill Park Newsagency owner Ly Vo said the team was glad their winner had finally come forward and claimed his prize.
“It’s very exciting! We’ve sold a division one winning share in a syndicate before, but this was our first Saturday Lotto division one win,” he said.
“It’s such great news. We’ll be sharing this exciting update with all of our customers.
“We’re over the moon and would love to send them our congratulations.
“It’s been tough for everyone lately, so we are stoked for our winner and hope they can enjoy their windfall.
“It’s a pleasure to have made one of our customers an overnight millionaire. We can’t wait for our next one!”
The winning numbers in Saturday Lotto draw 4197 on 9 October 2021 were 22, 40, 24, 18, 42 and 34, while the supplementary numbers were 37 and 19.
Across Australia, there were five division one winning entries in Saturday Lotto draw 4197 – two each from Queensland and New South Wales and one from Tasmania.
The Lott’s division one winning tally has now reached 188 so far this financial year, including 66 won by NSW Lotteries customers.
In the 12 months to 30 June 2021, Saturday Lotto created 174 millionaires across Australia.
During this time, there were 341 division one winning in Saturday Lotto entries across Australia, which collectively won more than $435.21 million.