Posted on: April 6, 2022, 07:27h.
Last updated on: April 6, 2022, 11:47h.
A man from New South Wales, Australia, is figuring out what to do with a sudden windfall of cash. He won a recent lottery for a massive prize, which doubled in size.
A man in New South Wales (NSW) recently won big in Australia’s Mon & Wed Lotto. It’s not surprising that, after Victoria, NSW is a great place to buy lottery tickets.
The unidentified man is a regular lottery player. He faithfully plays the same numbers each time – 20, 21, 13, 11, 16, 18. He knows his chances of winning aren’t great. But at some point, someone will win. That finally happened to him on March 30, although it took him a while to realize it.
The Port Macquarie resident told The Lott, the lottery’s administrator, that he repeatedly neglected to check his ticket to see if he had won. He carried it around with him everywhere he went but never realized he was holding over $1.5 million in his back pocket.
Single Ticket, Double the Winnings
When he finally decided to take a look, he discovered that he had won. That surprise was twice as big as his single ticket won two times.
The man played the exact same number twice on the same ticket, which counts as two separate lottery draws for the Mon & Wed Lotto. Like most, in the lottery, each of the tickets that correctly matches all numbers receives a payout. If one ticket hits all numbers in the Mon & Wed Lotto, the reward is AU$1 million (US$756,800). However, if there are five or more, the maximum prize of AU$4 million (US$3.02 million kicks in).
On March 30, the man’s lucky day, there were five winning tickets. As a result, all five shared the prize pool, receiving AU$800,000 (US$604,480) each. Since he played two lines with the same numbers, he claimed two prices, or AU$1.6 million (US$1.2 million).
The winner now wants to buy a new car, a home, and “make sure our family is looked after.”
Not the Only Big Win Recently
Although it is well known that the odds of winning any lottery draw are minimal, many people regularly play in hopes of striking it rich. However, there is no exact manual on how to win. Science has shown that any combination has the same chance of winning over the years.
Given this, many people seek to follow a strategy with sentimental value. Like the NSW winner, they always play the same numbers in many cases. Special dates such as births of children, the death of a family member, or important romantic dates are the most common options.
Although relying on familiar numbers does not increase the chances of winning, it becomes almost a ritualistic superstition. The superstition finally paid off for a family in Canada – after 36 years.
With their children’s birthdays, Joery and Lana Leung won the biggest prize of the Lotto 6-49 lottery. It offers a main jackpot of at least CAD$5 million (US$3.99 million), although it includes a rollover.
The family had an approximate chance of hitting the combination of one in 14 million. It worked, and after a substantially long, 36-year wait, the Leungs took home CAD$6 million (US$4.79 million) in March.
That was the second big payout in the Lotto 6-49 last month. Two relatives won CAD$8 million (US$6.4 million) in the draw on March 9.