Sunshine Coasters are lining up for the chance to become Australia’s biggest ever lottery winner.
Droves of locals have purchased tickets for Thursday night’s Powerball draw 1380, which boasts a record $160m jackpot.
The massive cash prize is on offer because there were no division one winners during the past five draws.
Nambour Village News newsagent Danielle Parkinson said customers were queuing up for their opportunity to win big.
Do you have an opinion to share? Will you be buying a lotto ticket? Submit a Letter to the Editor including your name and suburb via: news@sunshinecoastnews.com.au.
“It’s been crazy,” she said. “There’s a real buzz around Nambour. I’ve had to increase our trading hours.
“We’re selling dreams … and people are jumping in and getting tickets.”
Ms Parkinson said newsagents across the country were relishing the occasion.
“It’s what we live for. My dream is to sell a big division one ticket,” she said.
“I sold one (division one ticket) that was worth $2m a year ago but this would be the icing on the cake, to sell one worth $160m, maybe to a store syndicate, for people to share it around.”
The previous record for Australia’s biggest lottery draw was a $150m Powerball draw held in September 2019, when three people shared the jackpot.
The Lott spokesperson Matt Hart said up to half of Australian adults were expected to have an entry into this week’s draw.
“While Australian lotteries have been operating for more than a century, there have only been nine draws that have offered a jackpot of $100 million or more, and Thursday’s draw is the biggest of the lot,” he said.
“If just one person takes home this $160 million prize on Thursday night, they’ll make history by becoming the nation’s biggest ever individual lottery winner.
“In 2019, a Sydney nurse became Australia’s current biggest individual lottery winner when she won more than $107 million. We spoke to her minutes after the winning numbers were drawn – will we be speaking to a new record holder this Thursday night?”
Ticket sales are expected to pick up closer to the draw being made.
Almost 7000 entries were sold in one minute on the evening of the last Powerball draw on October 20.
“If we have a division one winner on Thursday night, we’ll be wanting to let them know straight after the draw,” Mr Hart said.
“They may not need to head into work on Friday, or ever again.”
Tickets can be purchased at any licensed lottery outlet, online from The Lott or via The Lott mobile app.
SUBSCRIBE here now for our FREE news feed, direct to your inbox daily!
