$1.6 million winning Lotto ticket tucked in drawer for three months

A Canberra resident checked his Lotto ticket to discover $1.6 million had been tucked in his drawer for months. Photo: Supplied.

A Canberra man who had a winning Lotto ticket in his drawer at home for more than three months has discovered he is now $1.6 million richer.

The man held one of four division one winning entries in Lotto draw 4097 from 24 October last year. Each division one winning entry scored $1,614,571.04.

The man said he only checks his lottery tickets every three months and couldn’t believe he’d unknowingly owned the life-changing prize since October.

“It’s crazy to think that $1.6 million has been sitting in that drawer for months! I wish I had checked the ticket sooner,” the man told an official from The Lott, the agency for Lotto.

“I’ve been playing Lotto for about 10 years, and I don’t check my tickets all the time. I only check them every three months or so,” he said.

“I finally got around to checking my ticket and I couldn’t believe it.

“For the past 10 years I have been dreaming of what this day would be like, and suddenly it has arrived, and I am speechless.”

The man said he couldn’t wait to enjoy the financial freedom as Canberra’s latest lucky lotto winner.

“I am going to take care of my family and pay off the mortgage,” he said.

“I’ll definitely keep working and think of how to invest the rest.”

The man’s million-dollar windfall is among a string of Canberrans who have cleaned up in lotteries lately.

A Canberra man in his early 20s will receive $4.8 million, paid in instalments of $20,000 a month for 20 years, after being declared the sole division one winner of the Set for Life draw on 27 January.

A Charnwood man won more than $11 million in October last year, while another Canberran won almost $1 million two weeks later.

The latest winning entry was purchased at the Caltex petrol station at Hume. Two of the other winners were from Queensland and the other was from Tasmania.

The winning numbers in the draw were 31, 38, 3, 30, 23 and 45, while the supplementary numbers were 19 and 40.