Lotto players respond to record draw

“We opened early and stayed open later and there was a steady stream all day — and a lot of excitement,” Mr Gould said.

“The amount of tickets sold was a record for the store.”

And there were a lot of collects, although none the magnitude of the three $53 million winners.

“The biggest collect was $1000. We had eight or nine of them,” he said.

Mr Gould said one syndicate had laid out $3000 for the draw.

“We found more and more people were playing the power hits, which guarantees you the power ball, and potentially bigger winnings,” he said.

There is a $40 million draw on New Year’s Eve

While none of the three winners were from Kyabram — for many it was back to the drawing board — there are $20 million draws scheduled for Saturday and last night.

Their windfalls did, however, pale against a Sydney woman who took home a $107.5 million Powerball prize in January this year.

The winning numbers of the record lotto draw were 10, 4, 12, 18, 2, 34 and 7, with the all important powerball 7.

In order to win the three needed all seven numbers and the powerball.

The winners received $53, 333, 333.34 each. It took lotto officials 12 hours to track down all three winners, a father from Penrith, a worker from Clyde and the last from West Australia.

The three winners, according to Tatts officials, were among half of Australia’s adult population that had a ticket in the life-changing draw.

The $160 million draw was $10 million more than the previous record, which Mr Gould said was three years ago

There have only been nine draws of $100 million of more in lotto history. For the record the odds of winning are one in 134, 490, 400 and there have been 16 division one winners this year.

Ten years ago a Kyabram person won $10 million and only 18 months ago the outlet had a $1 million collect.

“We had a lot of first timers come in and those who are regularly chasing the big jackpots,” he said.

“A lot of work groups put together syndicates.”