By Callum Ludwig
Yarra Junction newsagency is once again celebrating another division one Tattslotto win for its customers.
A pair of best friends bought a ticket in TattsLotto draw 4255 on Saturday, 30 April 2022 and won a life-changing $2.6 million.
Owner Matt Sartori said he found out about the win via email on Saturday 7 May.
“We were pretty excited. Three division one wins in under three years is very unheard of in the retail outlet of this sizer and we’re just ecstatic that someone local has won it,” he said.
“The customer didn’t know what to say at first when the girls told him he’d won it, and he’s been a nice loyal customer, which is really good to help one of the customers who support us and turn him into a millionaire.”
The winners had been buying tickets at Yarra Junction newsagent together for years, and the pair are splitting the money between them.
The winning man told The Lott he was usually in charge of purchasing a Powerball ticket, while the winning woman was usually in charge of the Tattslotto ticket.
“I’d forgotten to put the Powerball ticket on. So, I bought us a TattsLotto ticket instead. After the draw, she called to tell me someone from Yarra Junction had won TattsLotto. She kept saying she’d wished we’d bought our ticket from there,” he said.
“I said to her, ‘Well, that is where we bought our ticket from’. And she started crying and saying, ‘We’ve won TattsLotto! We’re the winners! It has to be us!’.
The pair held one of the two division one winning entries and scored a prize of $2,640,188.15. Both winning tickets were from Victoria.
Mr Sartori said the win has the whole Yarra Junction community buzzing and wondering who’s going to be next.
“We’re on a roll! The word gets around that we sold a division one real quick. Everybody’s praying and hoping they’re going to be next,” he said.
“It’s just a great feeling to be able to create overnight millionaires within the Yarra Valley. It’s not just a job, we’re here because we love it, it’s a pleasure to rock up to work every day and see the looks on people’s faces when they win a considerable amount of money.”
The winning man said a week went by before he checked the ticket, and when he found out that they won, he went straight over to tell his winning friend.
“She was working at home that day, so I drove over to her house and banged on her window. She was mad because I was noisy when she was on a work call. But then I said, ‘Here, give me a hug, you millionaire!’,” he said.
“She burst into tears. She was over the moon! She almost fell into the garden from the shock!”
The winning numbers in the draw on 30 April 2022 were 10, 20, 8, 42, 3 and 36, while the supplementary numbers were 45 and 9.
The winning man said the pair already have plans for the money.
“I want to use a good portion of it to help my friends and family. I’ll pop a few thousand dollars in some cards and surprise them with it, and take some time off work, too. I might even start a whole new job! It’ll allow me to rethink my career. I’m ready for a change,” he said.
“My friend has decided she’ll pay off her mortgage and some bills. Then we both might buy an investment property each.”
