A middle-aged man from Adelaide claimed the biggest lotto prize in the country, a staggering $150 million.
He came forward to claim his prize on Friday morning, describing his experience as a sleepless night.
He said he had two tickets in the last draw.
He said he noticed that the draw was getting late, and he thought it should have been completed earlier.
When he checked his first ticket, he didn’t find anything, so he went back and checked his second one. He then exclaimed and jumped high after learning that he had won $150 million.
Since he started playing the lottery regularly, the man said he had been keeping track of his ticket. He said he was surprised to learn that he had won, as he had just bought it at the store where he usually filled up his car. Despite his win, the man said he would continue working.
He said he would like to purchase a home and travel the world, but right now he is still in a state of shock. He was visiting the Salisbury convenience store where he purchased his ticket.
The man was the sole winner of the division one prize in the Powerball draw of 1462, which was conducted on Thursday. There were also over four million other winning tickets in the division two to nine draw, which collectively earned them over $89.3 million.
The winning ticket for the $150 million prize was purchased by a syndicate or multiple winners. Officials of the game said that around half of Australia’s adult population usually plays the lottery. Since the last six draws had no winners, the division one prize had increased.
Matt Hart, a spokesperson for the game, said that the odds of winning the $150 million prize were only five in the history of the game. He said that if one person wins the prize, they would become the country’s biggest lottery winner.
The last time a major prize of this magnitude was offered was in January this year, when approximately 7455 tickets were purchased in just a minute during the day of the drawing.