A Hamilton couple are “in a dream” after winning a “life-changing” $8.3 million in Lotto Powerball on Saturday night.
The pair, who wished to remain anonymous, discovered they had won the morning after the draw.
The man said he had been going through his work emails while drinking coffee when he noticed an email from Lotto.
“I jumped onto the MyLotto App to check my ticket but didn’t actually see the numbers line up because I was too busy drinking my coffee,” the man said, laughing.
“When I looked back at the ticket, it had $8.3 million across the top, which I thought was $8333 at first glance. To be fair, I was pretty happy with that!”
He then called over his partner “and she thought it was $8333, too”.
It wasn’t until the couple took another look that they realised they had struck it big.
“We were shocked and thought it was too good to be true but when we looked online and saw someone in Hamilton had won $8.3 million, we realised we had really won,” he said.
After claiming their mammoth prize online, the couple “got on with their day” after sharing the exciting news with their children – and having a “couple of celebratory drinks in the evening”.
The man said over a week later, the news still “hasn’t properly sunk in”.
“I’ve snuck a look at the winning ticket a few times in the past week to make sure it’s real.”
The pair said despite their momentous win, not much has changed.
“We’re back at work and not rushing out to buy anything crazy – although we’ll be able to splash out a bit more this Christmas!” the man said.
“We plan to take our time to think about what we really want to do. But we’ll definitely pay off our mortgage and help our family.
“This win has opened up so many opportunities for us, and we want to make sure we make the most of it.”
