Winner in Powerball’s $40 million jackpot

A lucky dad from South Australia has won the largest jackpot in the state in the past 10 years, with one small decision leading to the $40 million win.

A South Australian dad is now $40 million richer after being named the winner of last night’s Powerball prize.

The excited father revealed he had been playing Powerball for about seven years and for a long time he was buying QuickPicks.

One day he decided to use his family’s birthdates instead and he started to notice a change in his winnings.

“Once I changed the numbers, I started to win a few small things here and there so I thought to myself ‘I’m not going to change these, I’m going to stick to them’,” he said.

The man said that he and his wife were “over the moon” about being new multi-millionaires, but he wasn’t planning on blowing his new found fortune on a bigger house or a luxury car.

The dad, who is in his 50s, lives in a regional community on the outskirts of Adelaide with his family and said he wants to use the money to help others around him.

“I’m not into flashy houses or cars — it’s all about family first,” he said.

“We are quite involved in the local community in which we live. We’d love to give back to the charities and organisations close to our heart in the community.

“We’ve been doing it tough the last few years so this will make a whole world of difference to my family.”

The man said he wants to spend the money on helping his family and community.

The man said he made the discovery last night after checking the draw to find he had the winning numbers: 7, 5, 13, 4, 2, 14, 11 and a Powerball of 14.

“I was just sitting at home last night and for something to do I thought I would check my Powerball ticket,” he explained.

“I checked the numbers and recognised that a few of them were mine, so I double checked them again.”

He showed his wife and she told him “something must be wrong” and didn’t believe they had actually won until they received the confirmation call this morning.

There were six division two winners with $83,887.80 each and 79 division three winners with a prize of $3,893.55.

Aussie punters were quick to notice all of the ordinary numbers were lower than 14.

“Somebody won powerball tonight with the most ridiculous winning numbers. I am offended,” one gambler said.

“They’re all 14 and under? It’s meant to be in a pool of 35.”

The last time an Australian Powerball player took home $40 million was in May 2014, which was won by a father in Brisbane.

Somebody won powerball tonight with the most ridiculous winning numbers. I am offended. Also now that I’ve quit smoking I’m mad into lotteries lol (account balance 0). pic.twitter.com/CO07iTH6sz

— sorrel (@sorrelxo) February 28, 2019

Didn’t win powerball. Again.

— T.Miller (@TiMiller23) February 28, 2019

#PoorMe

So Powerball missed me again...

Division 8...

I'd already decided what I was going to do with the 40 mil.

😭

— OzGayPatriot 🇦🇺 (@AusAntiLeft) February 28, 2019

Last week there were three division two winners who each took home $142,767, while 63 division three winners each won $4155.

There were 882,035 winners across divisions two to nine who took home a collective $15,465,386.60 in prize money.

That included three division two winners who had every number except the Powerball — so one number shy of the $40 million division one prize on offer.

The last winner was in January when the record-breaking $100-million lottery jackpot captured the frenzied attention of the nation.

About a third of Aussies were estimated to have bough a ticket hoping their dreams of retiring early would come true.

Nearly 6000 tickets sold per minute at the peak of sales leading up to the draw.

Up to one in three adult Australians from far and wide bought an entry hoping their lottery dreams would come true.

But when a NSW mum became the country’s biggest ever lotto winner with a record $107 million jackpot, the healthcare worker in her 40s from inner-city Sydney revealed she wasn’t going to retire.

The woman decided to purchase a ticket with “random numbers” the day before the draw. The winning numbers were 4, 11, 18, 20, 22, 26, 33 and the Powerball was 9.

“I’m so passionate about my job. It will drive me to do more health work for causes important to me,” she said.

“We might buy a caravan and travel around too.”

Nearly 6000 punters bought tickets every hoping for a win.

To win the top prize, players have to match all seven numbers plus the Powerball, which is drawn from a separate barrel. They can either choose a randomly generated Quick Pick entry, or choose their own numbers.

They can improve their chances of winning by buying a Power Hit entry, which guarantees the Powerball number, a System entry, which lets them choose up to 20 numbers, or a Pick entry that guarantees up to two winning numbers from the main barrel.

The chances of winning with a single game are just one in 134,490,400. Chances of winning with a 12-game entry are one in 11,207,534.

While the Powerball is a random game of chance and every number has an equal chance of being drawn, The Lott says it has crunched the numbers to reveal the most frequently drawn numbers during the past eight months.

From the main barrel, the most frequently drawn numbers since 19 April 2018 are 29, 32, 17, 22, 24 and 34.

From the Powerball barrel, the most frequently drawn Powerball numbers 3, 19 and 13.