Ashburton friends celebrate $500,000 win

Ashburton friends celebrate $500,000 win

Having a few beers with the boys is already a winning combo, but imagine if that quick catch-up at the local pub ended up bagging you a $500,000 Lotto win?

Five mates from Ashburton are raising their glasses after a spur of the moment decision over a couple of drinks won them $500,000 with Lotto First Division on Wednesday night.

The friends, who wish to remain anonymous, don’t regularly buy Lotto tickets together, but thought they’d give it a shot when they realised the Powerball jackpot was getting high.

“We were having a few beers when one of the boys mentioned Powerball was right up there, so we thought we may as well give it a shot and each chipped in a couple of dollars towards a ticket,” explained one of the friends.

The mates got together again on Wednesday evening to watch the footy, not imagining that they would soon be celebrating a win of their own.

“Partway through the game we remembered our tickets so I jumped online to find out whether we’d won anything,” explained the winner.

“We’d won a small prize on our other ticket, so I was caught up looking at that – I didn’t even see the big win at first. Then I saw that we’d won $500,000… I was just stunned.

“I didn’t say anything to the boys to begin with. Then I saw I had an email from MyLotto letting me know that I’d won something big – that’s when it really hit me that we really had won and I called the guys over to share in the good news. We ended up having a bit of a big night, that’s for sure,” laughed the winner.

With their winnings safely in their bank accounts, the friends are now looking forward to enjoying their prize.

“There are lots of ideas buzzing around at the moment, we’re all really excited. We’re not too sure what we’ll end up doing, so are going to take a bit of time to make sure we make the right decision for each of us – I can’t wait to see what everyone does,” said the winner.

The winning ticket was sold online at MyLotto.co.nz.

ENDS

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