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‘It’s a sign’: Winner speaks after single ticket claims $100 million jackpot
The winner of a $100 million lottery ticket has credited her good fortune to help from the other side after a death in the family.
- A woman from Ballina, in the Northern Rivers region of NSW, has claimed last night’s entire $100 million jackpot.
- The win makes her the third biggest lottery winner in Australian history.
- She said she plans to pay off her mortgage and help out family members.
The winner of a $100 million lottery ticket has credited her good fortune to help from the other side.
“Bloody hell! Is this my cousin pranking me?” the incredulous winner reportedly said after picking up a call from Powerball operator The Lott.
“My cousin is pranking me!”
The woman from the NSW Northern Rivers town of Ballina, who had bought her lottery entry online, was the only person in Australia to get a division one win – getting all seven numbers, plus the Powerball number correct – on Thursday night.
“We recently had a death in the family, and I think it’s a sign from them; they’re so looking after me!” she said.
“We’ve had signs all day from them; things moving, cans moving, bags waving in the wind.”
The winner said she would pay off her mortgage and help others out.
“This will help a lot of people. Not just me but lots of family members,” she said.
She added that she would be “celebrating with breakfast in bed tomorrow – scrambled eggs and bacon for me!”.
Her $100 million jackpot makes the woman Australia’s third-biggest lottery winner.
She paid $18.90 for the 12-game QuickPick entry.
How a financial advisor would spend the $100 million
Financial advisor Simon Robinson from RSM Australia told The Money Edition that the first thing he would do is pause – because history tells us that a dramatic number of lottery winners soon find themselves broke.
“The key thing is not to pull the trigger too quickly,” Robinson said.
“Sit back, take a breath, and think: What do I want to achieve with this? Because $100 million is no small amount.
“That’s intergenerational wealth if you work with it properly. With that kind of money, you could set your kids, your grandkids, your great-grandkids up for the future.”
Robinson said the emotions around winning an amount, and the environment someone grew up in, would play a large role in how the money would be spent.
“The number of people who win lotto and then end up broke is just phenomenal. In some US studies, that figure is as high as 70 per cent,” he said.
“If you haven’t grown up around money, all of a sudden that could become really overwhelming.
“People could go out and buy the boat. Buy all the nice cars. Buy that beachfront property in Sydney that might cost $20 or $30 million.
“And suddenly that $100 million is whittled away very, very quickly. And all of those purchases have ongoing costs.”
-With AAP