‘Life-changing’ $50 million Powerball win
A Melbourne man had just finished work when he discovered his $46 million win. Photo: Getty
An unemployed western Sydney man has had his life completely turned around after winning $50 million in Powerball’s division-one prize pool.
The man, aged in his 30s and who wishes to remain anonymous, was the sole division-one Powerball winner in Australia drawn on Thursday, according to a statement from NSW Lotteries.
The man has been unemployed since the end of last year and described the win as “life changing”.
“It’s life changing! I don’t even know how many zeros are in $50 million,” he said in a statement.
He’s going to be generous with his winnings, claiming he’ll share it with friends, family and charity.
“I’ll share it with family and friends — if I’m winning, I want everybody along with me to win,” he said.
“I genuinely want to help people — so some sort of charity.”
NSW Lotteries also advised that the winner initially thought the call was an elaborate joke.
“No. No. No. Don’t tell me that. Are you serious man? I’ll probably faint,” the man said when he got the call, according to NSW Lotteries.
“I don’t know what to do. What should I do now? Should I call my mum? Should I hug my wife? What do I do?”
In 2016, a couple on Queensland’s Fraser Coast claimed $70 million in a Powerball draw, equal to the largest lottery win in Australia’s history, when a ticket purchased by a group of friends on the Gold Coast won $70 million in Oz Lotto.
A couple in a Victorian dairy town buffeted by the milk-price crisis in 2015 won a $40 million Oz Lotto prize.
And, also in 2015, a West Australian lotto player made history by taking out the entire $50 million Powerball division one prize, the biggest lotto prize ever won in the state.