A man from Melbourne has laid claim to two thirds of the Oz Lotto jackpot - upwards of $46 million - after mistakenly buying two tickets to the same lottery. He bought the tickets at two separate vendors in Melbourne, intending to play two different lotteries. Instead, he increased his Division 1 winnings by over 30%.
30 Years of Playing Oz Lotto
The St. Albans man had been playing the same numbers every week for 30 years, before matching the main seven on Tuesday 26th March – 12, 28, 24, 29, 9, 18, and 25. He maintains that the numbers he picked were not significant: “They weren’t special before, but they are now!”
The second winner has not yet come forward, but it has been revealed that their winning ticket was purchased in Hobart, Tasmania – around 468 miles from St Albans. The mystery winner is entitled to the remainder of the jackpot, which amounts to over $23 million.
An Oz Lotto spokeswoman had this to say of the Melbourne man’s extraordinary luck: “When we reached out to the division one winner from Melbourne to let him know he’d won this massive prize he was completely oblivious to the fact he’d won not once, but twice.
“Quite remarkably, the Melbourne man didn’t realise he’d bought two entries, he thought he’d bought an entry for a different lottery draw. But because he marks his entries, he marked them with the same numbers that came out of the barrel tonight which meant he won division one twice.”
Not The First Time
It has only been five months since Australia’s last brush with identical winning tickets. On October 13th 2018, a Queensland man won nearly $2 million of the Australia Saturday Lotto, after buying two tickets online by accident.
The $3.9 million jackpot was split between four winning tickets, all of which matched the six main numbers for the draw. In accidentally doubling up on his ticket purchase, the Queensland man staked a claim to half, instead of a third, of the jackpot!
How Does Oz Lotto Work?
Playing the Oz Lotto is simple: you pick seven numbers from a pool of 45; match all seven, and you win the jackpot. Two supplementary numbers are also drawn, which can help boost your winnings if matched.
There are seven “divisions” of prizes: if you match three out of seven main numbers, plus one or two supplementary numbers, you win a Division 7 prize; if you match all seven main numbers, you win a share of the Division 1 prize: the jackpot!
Tickets can be bought from licensed vendors across Australia – alternatively, you can pick your numbers online.
With the Oz Lotto jackpot now won, the lottery will reset to its minimum $2 million jackpot. The next draw is on Tuesday 2nd April.
