Powerball $80 million: Two New South Wales winners share jackpot

The second Aussie who won a life-changing $40 million has finally come forward to claim his prize. He was uncontactable due to a wrong number.

A Western Sydney man still showed up for work even though he won a huge $40 million in last week’s $80 million Powerball draw.

The Smithfield man was one of two NSW winners of the $80m jackpot, but hadn’t come forward for five days.

The Lott had been unable to contact him because the mobile phone number he had registered on the system had the wrong numbers in it.

“I didn’t know I’d won,” he said. “I checked my ticket on the weekend. I’d heard there was another Powerball winner they were trying to contact. I even said to my friend, ‘we’ll never win, only old people win’.

“They said you’d been ringing but I didn’t get a call. There was a digit wrong on my mobile number.”

The man, who owns a small business, still turned up to work even though he knew he had won the lifechanging amount of money.

The winning ticket was purchased from Dublin Street Newsagency on Dublin Street, Smithfield, with its owner Thuy Nguyen describing the result as “better than we could have ever imagined”.

“This is the first time we’ve ever sold a division one winning entry and it’s a $40 million prize,” he said.

“We’ve been waiting to make one of our customers a division one winner and it’s great we now have.”

The other winner, a retiree from Campbelltown in New South Wales, “refuses to believe” she has won $40 million, but news.com.au understands “one winner is refusing to answer their phone so may not have discovered their $40 million news”.

The $80 million draw is the biggest prize offered by any Australian lottery game so far this year.

RELATED: Australia’s top 10 lottery hot spots revealed

One in four Aussies are expected to enter the Powerball draw. Picture: Supplied

The Lott spokesperson Lauren Cooney told news.com.au: “While both entries were registered to a player card, officials from The Lott could only make contact with one of the winners this evening”.

“Two Sydneysiders are having a winning end to the working week, but first one of them needs to accept they’ve won, and the other needs to answer their phone – we promise it’s worth it,” she said.

“There are 40 million reasons why all Powerball players who purchased an entry into this week’s Powerball draw from a NSW Lotteries outlet in the City of Fairfield should check their ticket immediately.”

They said Thursday’s draw was only the eighth time Powerball had soared to this height in its 25 year history.

The unkown Sydney division one winner purchased their ticket from a NSW Lotteries outlet in the City of Fairfield region.

THE WINNING NUMBERS ARE: 35, 26, 10, 17, 31, 19, 21.

POWERBALL: 1

The retiree was understandably shocked when she picked up the phone.

“I don’t believe it!” she declared.

“No! No! Wow! I can’t believe it.

“My grandson told me earlier this week, ‘Grandma’s going to win the lotto’ and that’s why I bought a ticket.

“I’m a bit gobsmacked. I’m in shock. I can’t believe it.

“I’ve been playing for a long time. But you never think this is going to happen to you.”

Last year, on both occasions of the $80 million Powerball draws, a single entry won the huge jackpot.

“In March last year, a farmer from the Port Macquarie region pocketed an $80 million prize,” The Lott explained.

“Having battled drought and then bushfires in recent years, the Powerball winner saw the windfall as a welcomed change of fortune. High on his shopping list was a new satellite television so he could enjoy more channels.”

Then in July 2020, four days after the draw itself, a Melbourne couple discovered they’d won $80 million – making them the happy owners of Victoria’s biggest ever lottery prize, he added.

“The only Australians who have won more than $80 million from an Australian lottery game are a Sydney mum who won a $107 million Powerball prize in 2019 and a Chatswood dad who won $96 million in Lucky Lotteries Mega Jackpot the same year,” he said.

In 2021, there have been four Powerball division one winners so far who have collectively won $120 million. Two of these winners were from Queensland, while the other two were from New South Wales.