All the luck in the world: Walshy’s $60m lottery win

Mona’s eccentric boss David Walsh is on a mission to end queuing for restaurants, bars and events — and has revealed what that future might look like >>

Mona owner David Walsh speaks at the Sohn Hearts and Minds conference in Hobart on Friday, November 18, 2022.

Mona founder David Walsh has revealed his most successful bet yet — a $60m-plus lottery win.

Speaking to a conference of national and international investors in Hobart on Friday, Mr Walsh was asked about his biggest-ever paydays as a professional gambler.

“The two biggest ones are on the same scale,” Mr Walsh said, noting his syndicate partner would be “shitty” with him for telling the story.

He recounted a win of $63m on a horse race in Japan one Christmas Eve that he only found out about a week later.

“Our biggest one was slightly more than that,” Mr Walsh said, “on the German lottery”.

“It jackpotted so many times it was worth buying a bunch of tickets. So we bought a bunch of tickets.

“That was about six months ago.”

Mona owner David Walsh speaks at the Sohn Hearts and Minds conference in Hobart on Friday, November 18, 2022.

Mr Walsh said the win had involved the purchase of a million tickets.

He said it was possible to look at successful people and put too much emphasis on skill and talent and not enough on persistence and luck.

“The cohort here is probably a cohort that was mostly successful,” he said.

“There’s another cohort that would fill a stadium of people that had similarly realised appropriate strategies that either over-bet them or simply chose strategies that didn’t work in the long run or didn’t maintain their strategy.

Mona owner David Walsh speaks at the Sohn Hearts and Minds conference in Hobart on Friday, November 18, 2022.

“But there’s no difference in the level of skill of those that fail and those that succeed.”

Mr Walsh also revealed his long tango with the taxman continues.

“I’m in an endless fight with the Australian tax authorities. About every ten years I lose. And in between those ten years, I do not win.

“We have a deal where I give them a bunch of money and they say ‘I want more’.”

And he revealed he is involved in a bid to end queuing — based on his observation of lines at Mona.

“ Every time I see people lined up in the queue, I wonder why,” he said.

“We have technology that can know where you are, if you let it, why can you not nip into a bar and have a beer … while you’re waiting and then get summoned.

“Restaurants that don’t take bookings are 100 per cent full. But they’re taking a huge risk with their clientele. Restaurants that do take bookings are about 70 per cent full.

“If you could queue electronically, okay it knows where you are, it knows how long you’re going to take to get there by getting a taxi or an Uber, it can get you there just in time.

“So why are there any queues in the world?”