An Altona Meadows man’s usual Sunday routine took an unexpected turn when a gut feeling prompted him to check his lottery ticket, revealing a $690,000 prize in the weekend’s TattsLotto draw.
The victorious Victorian held one of the seven division one winning entries in TattsLotto draw 4495, drawn Saturday 17 August 2024 and pocketed a total division one prize of $697,041.32.
Amid the initial excitement, the jubilant winner admitted the shock had nearly caused him to have a medical emergency.
“I’m more calm today!” he said when speaking to an official from The Lott.
“It’s a funny story because I normally check my ticket when I go to the outlet to buy my next ticket, but when I got up Sunday morning, my gut told me to check it that day.
“Well, I tell you, I nearly had a heart attack!
“I was in tears, and I needed plenty of tissues.
“I’ve had a lot of setbacks with health and all sorts of things, so I just thought, ‘Wow!’.
“My son said it’s time to get a new phone now I can afford one. My current phone is almost as old as a rotary dial telephone.”
When asked how he planned to celebrate, the winning man shared he had already started enjoying himself.
“I’m at a restaurant having lunch right now actually,” he said.
“It’s been a beautiful day of celebration surrounded by family. I got them around straight away when I found out the good news.
“They’re very happy for me and have been helping me all day.”
The winning entry was purchased from Central Lotto, Shop 14, Central Square Shopping Centre, 1 Central Avenue, Altona Meadows.
Central Lotto owner Bruce Zheng said the team was excited to have sold another division one winning entry.
“This is our fourth division one winning entry we’ve sold this year and our 38th division one overall,” he said.
“We’ve been sharing the amazing news with our customers. They’re all very excited and happy to hear this good news for our community.
“We can’t thank them enough for all their support.
“We would love to send our best wishes and congratulations to our winning customer and their family. We hope this great win is the beginning of their wonderful life.
“We can’t wait to see more of our customers’ dreams come true!”
The Lott’s division one winning tally has now reached 272 so far in 2024, including 100 won by Tatts customers.
In 2023, TattsLotto created 176 millionaires across Australia.
During this time, there were 303 division one winning Saturday Lotto entries across Australia that collectively won more than $436 million.
