More than a week after the draw, a retiree in his late 60s has come forward as the missing Division One winner from last Saturday – making this his second Division One win in 20 years.
The winning ticket, from the Saturday Lotto draw held on 17 July, is worth almost $1 million and was bought from Seacrest Newsagency in Wandina.
The man, who lives in Butler, had been ‘couch-surfing’ with his wife and visiting family while he waited for some home renovations to be completed.
“We recently sold our house and while our current house was being renovated, we decided to head to Geraldton to couch-surf and look after the grandkids and bought the ticket up there as part of our weekly routine,” he said.
The man checked his ticket at his regular newsagency in Butler, where he was told he had won Division One but thought it was $300,000.
“The printout said there were three Division One winners, so I simply divided it by three. I didn’t realise I’d won $999,000 until I got to Lotterywest’s Head Office,” he said.
This is the second time the man has won Division One on Saturday Lotto, having taken home a prize of $474,000 in 2004.
“We hope to eventually go overseas, but this time all future travel will be up the pointy end of the plane,” he said.
Lotterywest Senior Media and Communications Officer Hermione Coleman said with Saturday Lotto the most popular Lotto game in WA, all eyes were on this weekend’s Superdraw.
“This weekend Saturday’s prize pool will be bumped from an estimated $5 million to an incredible $20 million,” she said.
“Our advice is to get your tickets early with sales peaking on draw day.”
All proceeds from the sale of Lotterywest tickets go back into supporting the WA community, with last financial year delivering a record return of $313.4 million given back.
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Media Enquiries Pina Compagnone & Hermione Coleman: 9488 6227 / 0438 996 884