One Sydney woman wins $107 million Powerball jackpot

One lucky woman from Sydney has taken home more than $100 million Powerball jackpot, making Australian lottery history for the biggest individual prize ever won.

An official from the Lott called the registered player directly after the draw to break the news.

When confirming the news, the winner initially revealed she thought she had won $107,000.

The regular player, who wished to remain anonymous, purchased her 12-game marked entry online, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

“I’ve had such a tumultuous day, so I don’t know where I am and what I am doing,” the woman said.

“I don’t understand – is this actually? Is this a trick? Oh my God, $107,000! That’s amazing,” she said.

Little did she know that her sum was far bigger than that.

“Wait – are you telling me I’ve won $107 million? Oh my God! That is just so much money,” she said.

Anonymity more to do with being humble than fear

The Lott spokesman Matt Hart told Yahoo News they had to honour the winner’s wishes to remain anonymous under a federal privacy act.

He said there was a surprising reach why most Australians chose to remain anonymous, and it’s not because they are worried about being robbed.

“People’s main concern is they don’t want to be viewed differently by friends and family,” Mr Hart said.

“It’s quite an Australian thing. We’re down to earth and people don’t want to be seen as flashy.”

“Winners choose to keep it quiet and it’s quite humble.”

Mr Hart said many winners did not opt to give their name or address, but were happy to share other details including age and occupation.

When asked how she planned to spend her windfall, the winner revealed her family was first and foremost in her mind.

“I’m a healthcare professional but I won’t be retiring. I’m so passionate about my job. It will drive me to do more health work for causes important to me,” she said.

“I’m not quite sure what to do but of course I will be helping my family. I’ll be giving my favourite charity some money. They’ll get a whole slab of money,” she said.

A mother from inner west Sydney wins over $107m in Powerball last week.

Will share with family/friends, charities; will keep working, & buy a caravan to travel.😁
Celebrated with a cheap Chardonnay.https://t.co/pVLfgda4iF

— Bron (@Brontherese) January 19, 2019

The numbers drawn in Thursday night’s Powerball draw were 20, 18, 33, 22, 11, 26 and 4 and the Powerball was number 9.

Across Australia there was only one division one winning entry.

The winner’s division one prize was boosted to $107,575,640.08 due to the number of entries purchased in the draw.

The entry was the only one to match all seven winning numbers and the Powerball.

Thursday’s draw also saw a total of 3,856,275 prizes worth more than $68.4 million won in divisions two to nine.

This included 20 division two winning entries that each took home a division two prize of $94,792.90.

Not all lotto wins are good wins

The ‘lotto curse’ has strike many times in the past, where winners of a lottery have splurged their winnings and been left in financial ruin.

There are a host of horror stories outlined by News, with one winner in the UK Gillian Bayford disowning her family following a $240 million win the UK when they became “greedy”.

She said the influx of cash brought out the worst in everyone, causing a huge rift between her loved ones.

“It’s upsetting and raw. The money was supposed to make everybody happy. But it’s made them demanding and greedy,” she told the Daily Express.

An Australian Toll courier Gary Baron ended up in a bitter dispute over the winnings of his $16.6 million prize by his co-workers.

The co-workers claimed that the win was a result of the syndicate, while he said the winning ticket was purchased separately.

The two-year long battle ended in August 2017 with the parties agreeing to a settlement on the first day of the trial.