Powerball winner watches life change in a moment with $12 million windfall
The Powerball winner from Victoria said he recently added a new figure to his chosen 'lucky' lotto numbers.
A man watched on in disbelief as each of his Powerball numbers were pulled one by one on live television on Thursday night, scoring him an incredible $12 million. The resident of Lara, Victoria, admitted he never usually watches lottery draws, but felt the need to tune in this week.
Despite landing the only division one winning entry in the country, remarkably the man headed to work as usual on Friday — but admitted his days on the job are now numbered.
"It honestly hasn't sunk in," he laughed while chatting to an official from The Lott. "It's a lot of money to process.
"I can't remember the last time I've watched a lottery draw on TV, but for some odd reason, I decided to watch it last night. I couldn't believe what I was seeing when my numbers started to come up."
The winner said while he has his usual 'lucky' numbers "memorised by heart", he recently "added in a new number because of someone's birthday".
Powerball winner to keep prize 'on the down low'
The man admitted he had no plans on reveal his Powerball win to "anyone". "I'm going to keep it on the down low and process it all," he told The Lott.
"This will be a huge help towards the future. I've already started to wind down my hours and this will really help me transition into retirement."
His winning PowerHit entry was purchased at Lara Lotto Cards & Gifts, just north of Geelong. So far this year, there have been three division one winning lottery entries in the Geelong and southwest region — totalling more than $17.42 million in prize money.
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The owner of the shop where the man bought his ticket, Meena Misra, said she was thrilled to have sold a division one winning entry — and so soon after another customer won a large prize. "The last time we sold a ticket that won a major lottery prize was in March this year when our group syndicate took out $2.5 million in a TattsLotto Superdraw," she said.
"Congratulations to the winning man and we wish him all the best with his prize. We hope his prize allows him to spread joy and do something nice."
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