A young St Helena woman is thanking her partner for rummaging through the bins and retrieving an Instant Scratch-Its ticket that had won a top prize of $1,000 a week for five years.
The top prize winning $5 Live the Life ticket was purchased at Aqueduct News & Lotto, Shop 9, St Helena Market Place, 214 Aqueduct Road, St Helena.
Speaking with an official from The Lott this morning, the overjoyed woman explained she’d almost missed out on her top prize win.
“I love Instant Scratch-Its, but I’ve never bought one of these tickets,” she explained.
“My boyfriend surprised me the other day and brought me home a few tickets, and one of them was this ticket.
“When I first scratched it, I thought it didn’t win anything, so I just tossed it in the bin. But then my boyfriend grabbed it out of the bin and checked it for me, and he said, ‘What the hell, you’ve won the top prize!’.
“I didn’t believe a word he said. I assumed he was just pranking me, or it was some kind of novelty ticket.
“It took quite a bit of convincing. We read the instructions on the back of the ticket a few times. He just kept saying to me, ‘You’ve won! You’ve won!’.
“It was a big shock. It was really hard to comprehend! I always dreamt of that moment, but it was very surreal when it happened.
“I’ve never won anything like this, so it’s amazing!
“What a fantastic surprise right before Christmas too. My family was stoked when I told them.”
When asked how she planned to enjoy her instant win, the Victorian explained she had one thing in mind.
“I am not sure what I will do with it. I am still coming to terms with the news,” she laughed.
“I think we will definitely use it to buy a house, though!”
Aqueduct News & Lotto owner Rohit Narang said he was proud to have delivered a major prize win to one of his customers right before Christmas.
“It’s incredible! We are so happy,” he said.
“The young lady came in here to check her ticket. She was blown away by the news! It was amazing to have been a part of her winning moment.
“We wish her all the best with her windfall and hope it makes for a lovely Christmas with her family and friends.
“Fingers crossed, we sell more major prize wins to our customers before Christmas time. That would be a fantastic way to end the year.”
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.