A lottery ticket winner has stepped forward to claim a $55million Powerball jacket just seven days before the massive prize would have been forfeited to the government.
The Tatts Group, which runs Australia’s major lottery prizes, had spent more than five months desperately asking the winner to come forward.
After 175 days of appeals, a Melbourne winner claimed the prize today to take home the Powerball jackpot from a January 11 draw.
A lottery ticket winner has stepped forward to claim a $55million Powerball jacket just seven days before the massive prize would have been forfeited to the government
The instant multimillionaire held the winning 50-game QuickPick entry from draw 1130, which was the biggest lottery prize in more than a year.
The luckiest person in Australia stepped forward just seven days before the $55million would have been transferred to the Victorian State Revenue Office.
Under Victorian law, players have six months to claim their prize directly from the Tatts Group.
Powerball spokeswoman Bronnie Spencer said the ecstatic Powerball winner had chosen to remain anonymous.
The Tatts Group, which runs Australia’s major lottery prizes, had spent more than five months desperately asking the winner to come forward
‘We’re in the business of paying prizes so it’s an absolute pleasure to finally deliver this multi-million dollar win to the rightful owner,’ she said.
‘It’s fair to say this is the prize that has captured the imagination of the nation during the past five months.
The elusive winner, however, is still coy on why the prize wasn’t claimed five months ago.
After 175 days of appeals, a Melbourne winner claimed the prize today to take home the Powerball jackpot from a January 11 draw
‘While the prize has been claimed, the mystery continues as the reason behind the delay in coming forward has not be revealed,’ Ms Spencer said.
‘Nor will we know exactly how the winner’s multi-million-dollar dreams have come true.’
The winner bought their unregistered Powerball 50-game QuickPick entry from Scole Lotto & News at Brunswick, in Melbourne’s gentrified inner north.
The winning from the January 11, 2018 draw were 32, 7, 5, 34, 38 and 11, while the all-important Powerball number was 12.
Across Australia there were only one winning entry in Powerball draw 1130.
Last year a Melbourne man came forward to claim a TattsLotto prize of more than $500,000 two weeks before the deadline, after reading a local newspaper article about the unclaimed money.
The next largest unclaimed lottery win in Australia is a $2million Wednesday Gold Lotto ticket bought in Cairns in January 2014.
In 2013 a $50million Powerball winner from Dubbo, in central western New South Wales, did not claim their prize for seven days.
In the weeks after the January 11 draw the newsagent who sold the $55million ticket was inundated with customers trying to claim the prize.
Scole Lotto & News owner Sam Misiano said punters had flooded his store with sob stories.
‘I’ve heard everything,’ Mr Misiano said. ‘It’s out of this world. One lady believed she threw the ticket away.’
Melbourne’s Scole Lotto & News owner Sam Misiano (pictured) whose business sold the $55million winning ticket said punters had tried to claim the prize since the draw