Dreams Of Winning Powerball Come True For Hamilton Woman

A Hamilton woman had a long weekend to remember after winning $16.5 million with Powerball First Division.

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, was enjoying a long weekend away with her husband and close friends when she discovered she had just become the country’s newest Powerball multi-millionaire.

“We had just returned to the house after a morning walk and were deciding what to do with the rest of the day when I decided to quickly check my emails and saw an email from MyLotto letting me know that I had won a major prize,” said the woman.

“I thought I must have won around $1,000, so was pretty excited and logged straight in to check my ticket.”

After watching the animated draw on MyLotto, the winner got the surprise of her life when she saw just how much she had won.

“When I saw all the numbers lined up on my ticket, along with the number sixteen followed by a bunch of zeroes on screen… well, I got really excited! I thought I had won $16,500 and I was thrilled – I shouted out to everyone that I’d just won $16,500 and we all started celebrating straight away. I was over the moon,” said the woman.

It wasn’t until the winner handed her phone to her friend so they could take a look that she discovered just how lucky she had become.

“My friend took one look at the ticket and said ‘hang on, you’ve actually won a bit more than that – you’ve missed a few zeroes!’” laughed the woman.

“He handed me back the phone and my husband and I took a good look at the number again – that’s when we realised what we thought were full stops were actually commas, and we’d really won $16.5m.

“I truly couldn’t believe it – neither of us could! I got the shakes and had to sit down,” said the winner.

After taking a moment to catch their breath, the winner and her husband called their kids to let them know the life-changing news.

“Half the fun of buying a Powerball ticket is imagining what you’d do if you won big – it’s something I love doing with the family,” said the winner.

“So when I called the kids to share the good news, it took some time to convince them that I’d actually won. When they finally believed me, there were plenty of tears from all of us – it’s absolutely life-changing,” said the woman.

After celebrating her newfound fortune with her husband and friends, the winner is now looking forward to the future.

“I’m still getting my head around the fact that I’ve won $16.5 million – it still kind of feels impossible. But the more I think about it, the more real it feels,” the winners said.

“This prize is going to make such a huge difference to our lives – and the lives of our family. We’re going to use the winnings to set ourselves up for retirement and make sure the kids are looked after. It’s truly unbelievable to think that we can do all the things we’ve dreamed of doing over the years.”

The winning ticket was sold online at MyLotto for the draw on Saturday 5 June.

Powerball wins in 2021

© Scoop Media