A Riverstone man has revealed he unknowingly sat on a $10,000 Instant Scratch-Its win for a couple of months after stashing the unscratched gifted ticket in his bedside drawer.
The western Sydney resident’s winning $1 Treasure Chest Instant Scratch-Its top prize ticket was purchased at Riverstone Newsagency, Shop 7/12, Riverstone Parade, Riverstone.
“This is unreal,” he chuckled when an official from The Lott confirmed his prize.
“It’s funny – I received the ticket as a birthday present a couple of months ago and I didn’t think much of it at the time, so I decided to stash it away.
“I never really expect to win anything. I’ve only ever won a couple of dollars here and there. Little did I know I was sitting on $10,000!
“Thankfully I was doing a clean-out last weekend and I discovered the ticket in my bedside drawer still unscratched.
“When I finally scratched the ticket, I couldn’t believe my eyes. What a birthday present!
“This will be going straight to my home renovation fund. Thank you very much!”
Riverstone Newsagency owner Manxia Li said she was overjoyed to have sold a top prize-winning Instant Scratch-Its ticket and wished the winner all the best with their prize.
“It is just amazing news for our newsagency and for our local community,” she said.
“It’s been a while since we’ve sold a top-prize winning Instant Scratch-Its ticket so I felt like it was about time we had another win.
“Congratulations to the winning man and all the best with your future endeavours.”
In 2023, there were 144 Instant Scratch-Its top prize winners across The Lott’s jurisdictions who collectively took home more than $12.1 million in top prizes.
During this same time, Instant Scratch-Its players enjoyed more than 26.76 million wins across all prize tiers worth more than $249.17 million. This equates to more than half a million winners a week and about $700,000 won on Instant Scratch-Its every day.
Every month, Instant Scratch-Its’ 2nd Chance Draw gives you another chance to turn your eligible non-winning Instant Scratch-Its into a winner. Visit thelott.com to enter this month’s 2nd Chance Draw.
The official home of Australia’s lotteries, The Lott operates and markets Australia’s leading lottery games customers know and love creating everyday winners, winning every day.
In 2023, more than 122.7 million wins took home more than $3.76 billion in prize money from their favourite games at The Lott, including Saturday Lotto, Weekday Windfall, Powerball, Oz Lotto, Set for Life, Lucky Lotteries, Keno (SA), Super 66, Lotto Strike and Instant Scratch-Its.
Last financial year, Australia’s official lotteries contributed more than $1.6 billion via state lottery taxes and donations to help community initiatives, such as hospitals, health research, disaster relief and education.
