Group of Australian Mates Take Home $32m Lottery Prize
A group of eight friends, who regularly play golf together, have won the AU$ 30 million (NZ$ 32 million) jackpot in the Australian lottery. They managed this with a joint lottery ticket. It is the second largest jackpot paid out in Australia this year, after the AU$40 million (NZ$ 43 million) Powerball jackpot fell last month.
By winning the Australian lottery jackpot, each of the eight friends will now receive a tax-free amount of AU$3.75 million (NZ$ 4.07 million), making them all instant millionaires. The winning ticket that the group of friends bought was a Slikpik 50, which means that the numbers on the ticket were randomly selected by the lottery.
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Disbelief Amongst Golf Mates
One of the winners, the main ticket holder, found out about the lottery win whilst having dinner with his wife. Whilst eating he took out his ticket and saw that all the numbers on the ticket matched the draw. He then immediately called his seven golf mates, with whom he collectively bought the lottery ticket, to inform them about winning the AU$30 million jackpot. At first, his friends reacted in disbelief. The group’s ticket-holder was enjoying some roast beef when he checked the winning numbers and quickly rang his mates to share the news.
“I started making calls to my mates to tell them we’d just won a million dollar prize. One of the guys didn’t believe me and went back to eating his dinner. Another group member told me that if it was a joke, he would come over, and I would be in trouble.”
Main ticket holder
The names of the winning friends have not been revealed. The group of golfing mates waited until presenting themselves to the lottery organisation to claim the prize until Wednesday morning because they were just “too busy celebrating”. According to the main ticket holder they stayed up almost the entire night, discussing their future plans to pay off their mortgages and go on an overseas holiday.
- The winning numbers were: 19 47 15 46 12 9 21 20 34 30.
- The supplementary numbers were: 16, 34, 30
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Lotterywest: “Excellent Start of 2023”
The group of friends has now received the prize at the head office of lottery provider Lotterywest, The West Australian reports. Lotterywest CEO Ralph Addis calls the jackpot “a good start to the year 2023”:
“We are absolutely thrilled to have another big win for WA [Western Australia] just a few weeks after celebrating a family in Swan Valley winning AU$40 million on the Powerball.”
Ralph Addis, CEO Lotterywest
Six of the friends — two of whom are reported to be from Western Australia — also won a Division Two prize worth more than $69,410. The lottery is known to help local communities based on a percentage of their income, with more than $4.59 million raised for WA community groups over the five-week OZ Lotto jackpot run.
A new $32 million jackpot will be available on Thursday in the next Oz Lotto Powerball draw. Last month, another resident of Western Australia won the Powerball jackpot worth AU$ 40 million (NZ$ 43 million). Without knowing it, he had the winning lottery ticket, a Slikpik 18 ticket, in his pocket for more than a week.
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About Oz Lotto/Lotterywest
Oz Lotto is a national lottery game in Australia and is offered and owned by Tatts Group. It is administered by its lottery brand ‘the Lott’ in all Australian States except Western Australia, where it is administered by Lotterywest. The draw takes place every Tuesday at 8.30pm AEST. The lottery was first held on 26 February 1994 and widely promoted as Australia’s first national lottery game. This was at a time when New South Wales did not belong to the Australian Lotto Bloc. Each game costs AU$1.10 + agent’s commission. Players can buy their tickets both online and at brick and mortar selling points.
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