Twelve Big Winners in Australia Saturday Lotto Superdraw
Twelve lucky players have been celebrating after an Australia Saturday Lotto Superdraw took place with an AU$20 million jackpot up for grabs. The dozen winners split the eight-figure windfall, each receiving just over AU$1.6 million each, so find out more about some of the players who have become overnight millionaires.
Special AU$20 Million Superdraw Jackpot
The 12 jackpot-winning tickets matched all six numbers – 18, 19, 26, 27, 38 and 43 – in the draw on Saturday 16th February to win just over AU$1.6 million each. Seven of the Saturday Lotto jackpot-winning entries were from Victoria, with two apiece from New South Wales and Western Australia, and one from the Tasmania region.
There were over one million winners on the night, including 118 players who matched all five main numbers and one of the two Supplementary numbers – 15 or 22 – to take home AU$10,488 each. The draw saw more than double the amount of winners crowned compared to the previous normal draw.
Saturday Lotto Superdraws are held at various points over the year in Australia, offering a much bigger jackpot prize compared to normal draws. The Superdraw jackpots available normally range between AU$18 and AU$30 million, and the next special draw should be taking place later this year.
“It Feels Like It’s Not Real. I Really Can’t Believe It”
A woman from Adelong, New South Wales, was one of the lucky winners. She has decided to remain anonymous after buying her winning Quick Pick entry from an Adelong Newsagency on 57 Tumut Street. She has expressed a desire to use some of her seven-figure winnings to go on holiday to Canada, and revealed she had been “playing Saturday Lotto for decades”.
She struggled to put into words what it felt like to be a big winner, and said: “It’s a bit hard to take in. It feels like it’s not real. I saw on Facebook that an unregistered player in Adelong had won division one (a jackpot prize), and thought I had better check my ticket. I really can’t believe it.”
Cheri Ryan, owner of the Adelong Newsagency that sold the winning entry, said it was the first big prize they had sold in eight years. She explained: “Our first thought was that we must have read the results wrong. As you can imagine in a town of only one thousand people there has been plenty of excitement and much speculation on the possibility of a local being the winner.
“We have sold a few division two (second prize tier) winning entries in the past but this is the first entry we’ve sold worth more than AU$1 million. We wish the lucky winner all the best and really hope it does improve their life.”
Tasmania Winner Cannot Believe Her Luck
Elsewhere, a woman from Kingston in Hobart, Tasmania, has still been coming to terms with the fact she matched all six numbers in the Superdraw. She bought her winning entry from the Channel Newsworld Lotto store in Channel Highway, Kingston, and her jackpot win was confirmed during a telephone conversation with Tatts, an official lottery operator in Tasmania.
She said: “I can’t believe it! I thought I might have had a few numbers but I didn’t realise until a few minutes ago that we had all of them. I only play every now and then and usually grab a Quick Pick. I only bought into this draw because I was right next to the shop!”
The ecstatic winner also revealed how the delay in her coming forward to claim her winnings was because she didn’t have access to the internet and hadn’t checked the newspaper, so “had no idea there was a winner in the area”. She has revealed plans to maybe buy a new car and do some jobs around the house.
Mike Ditcham, a business partner of Channel Newsworld Lotto, added: “Congratulations to our winner! We wish her good luck and hope she is able to realise all of her dreams! We hope our winner enjoys this once in a lifetime opportunity and makes the most of it!”
The upcoming Saturday Lotto draw has a jackpot worth AU$4 million up for grabs, and you can see how you get on by filling out a playslip from any licensed retailer in Australia, or picking your numbers online. Good luck to you all!