The big secret that more than one in 10 lotto winners keep
Do you know someone who has won the lottery?
If you think the answer is no, you might be surprised.
The Lott’s Annual Winners Report found a surprising 11 per cent of division one winners told absolutely no one about their good fortune.
Meaning more than one in 10 grand prize lottery winners did not tell a soul.
Almost every major prize winner in 2020 at least told their partner or a family member the news.
A generous 52 per cent even shared the windfall with family and friends, while a quarter donated a portion to charity.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot of things, including how people spent their winnings.
With a luxurious overseas holiday off the cards, and shopping sprees at times limited to online deliveries, winners had to get creative with their newfound wealth.
In some good news for Australian mateship, the Lott spokesperson Lauren Cooney said Aussies were “a giving bunch”.
“One generous respondent believed their prize had benefitted up to 150 people, while the average number of beneficiaries for each win was nine,” Ms Cooney said.
“More than a quarter of respondents (27 per cent) shared their windfall with more than ten people.”
Others used the money for random acts of kindness, like paying for a stranger’s groceries.
The chance of winning division one in the lottery is 1 in 13.9 million, according to Gambling Help Online. Australia had 484 division one winners in 2020, with a total of $1.24 billion in prize money.
Ms Cooney shared three “universal pieces of advice” from rare winners.
“Take a moment after the win to plan, share the winning feeling with your nearest and dearest, and find the balance between enjoying yourself and making the best use of the prize,” she said.
In the 2020/21 financial year, Australia’s Official Lotteries paid more than $1.5 billion via state lottery taxes and donations to community initiatives, such as hospitals, health research, disaster relief and education, The Lott said in a statement.
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