Yamba Lotto win makes for the perfect holiday

After 50 years of visiting, woman takes home Lotteries prize in surprise

Owner of newsXpress Yamba Wayne Court shows off their Division 2 Oz Lotto selling win.

She has been visiting Yamba on holidays for more than 50 years, but for one woman, this year’s trip will be one she’ll never forget.

The unnamed woman won a division 2 prize in last week’s Oz Lotto draw worth $46,712.95, and owner of newsXpress Yamba Jo Court said she was a mixture of happy and stunned at the news.

“She lives in another regional town, and had honeymooned in Iluka 50 years ago, and they’ve been coming to Yamba every year ever since … which is really nice,” Ms Court said.

“This year she said her husband told her not to forget to buy the lotto ticket and she bought a registered Quick Pick.”

Ms Court said the newsagency received a notification they had sold a winning Division 2 ticket, and spent the next day waiting to see if they’d find out who the winner was.

“Sometimes they come in, or other times they go direct to NSW Lotteries,” she said.

“She came in on her way to Coles and said she wanted to check the ticket, and we had a big poster up that said someone had won the Division 2 ticket, and when it came up we said ‘you’re the lady I’m looking for’.

“She then called her daughter and grandson who were shopping ahead in Coles to come back, and we had three generations of the family there to get the news, and they stunned. Happy, but stunned.”

Ms Court said she was unsure what the lucky winner would do with the money, but said her customers often had two trains of thought with what they’d do with the money.

“Some say it’s all going to the family, and the others say they’ll disappear and live on an island and drink martinis,” she laughed.

It is the third major prize owners Jo and Wayne Court have sold since they’ve owned the newsagency for the past five years.

“We had a $1.2m Lotto win which we didn’t find out who won, and a $200,000 win go to a local, which was lovely,” Ms Court said.

The Oz Lotto draw was worth $35m with one lucky winner taking the entire prize, but there is more money up for grabs this week.

The Powerball draw has jackpotted to $80m this week, and Ms Court said that the interest was high for entries.

“It’s huge, people that don’t regularly buy a ticket will always buy a ticket in the big draw,” she said.

“It’s been this size a number of times in the last couple of years and it’s always busy.”