A football fan who returned home from holiday disappointed after watching his beloved NRL team lose discovered several days later that he had won $2.5 million.
The Bundaberg dad from Queensland’s Wide Bay region had travelled to Brisbane to cheer on the Broncos in their final game of the season against the Melbourne Storm earlier this month and bought a Saturday Gold Lotto ticket on the way.
I had no idea I had one of the four Division 1 winning tickets until almost two weeks after the Sept. 7 drawing.
“Wow! We’re so excited,” the surprised winner told Lott.
‘My wife and I were at Red Rooster having dinner last night because we were too tired to cook and while we were there my wife decided to check my ticket.’
‘My wife started getting really excited and I looked over her shoulder to see what the prize was and I thought I had won $42.
‘I started getting excited about winning $42 because it was more than my wife had won, which was $3.20, but then she told me to look again and it turned out she was looking at the cost of the ticket.
“I couldn’t believe it. We were going crazy.”
A Broncos fan who returned home from holiday disappointed after watching his favourite NRL team lose discovered weeks later he had won $2.5 million.
The father said the win was a big step forward after the Broncos’ disappointing 50-12 loss to the top-flight teams to end their season.
“The game made me cry. I thought it had been a disappointing trip because they hadn’t won, but it turned out to be the best trip ever,” he said.
‘I only buy lottery tickets when I’m away from home because I always hear about people winning when they’re on holiday and look what’s happened.’
The hard-working small businessman plans to use his windfall to buy a house for his daughters and set aside some funds for his retirement.
The Queensland father had travelled to Brisbane to watch the Broncos play the Storm on September 5 and, during the trip, bought a winning Saturday Gold Lotto ticket.
The ticket was purchased from Nextra Express Chermside just weeks after it sold the winning $100 million Powerball ticket.
“If we’re not the luckiest store in Brisbane this year, I can’t imagine who would be! We’re so happy to have sold another division one winning entry to one of our customers,” said owner Shannon Hickey.
‘Ever since we sold the massive $100 million winning ticket in a recent Powerball drawing, we’ve had customers coming in to chat and take a selfie with our sign.’