Spur of the moment decision to buy winning $53m Powerball ticket
A group of 20 goldminers who took out the division one prize for Australia’s biggest ever lottery had never placed bets together before.
‘Peter’, 54, from the Kalgoorlie-Boulder goldmine, about 600km west of , said he and his plant operator mates decided to put $100 each towards tickets for last Thursday’s Powerball in a ‘spur of the moment’ decision.
The small group lucked out and took out the Division One prize worth $53million – despite dismal odds of winning at just one in 134,490,400.
‘It was just a one off because it was a big draw,’ Peter told Perth radio station
A group of 20 goldminers from Kalgoorlie-Boulder decided to enter the $160million Powerball (above) last Thursday on a ‘spur of the moment’
He said he’d checked the numbers earlier in the night and excitedly told his coworkers they’d had a Division Two win.
It was only later he realised they were going to be taking a piece of the record-breaking $160million division one prize pool.
‘I couldn’t believe, I checked the ticket about 10 times,’ Peter said.
‘We just couldn’t believe it. We all put $100 in, spur of the moment sort of thing.’
One member of the group filmed her reaction to Thursday’s massive win but said she wouldn’t be leaving work.
One of the miners (above) said she was determined to stay ‘loading trucks’ after the group won $53million in the Powerball’s first division
‘You know how they say “one Powerball and I’m out of here”? Well, it ain’t true. I’ve known since the start of my shift and I’m still loading trucks,’ she said.
Her announcement would come as a relief to the group’s boss Chris Wood who said the ‘great’ group of workers make up his ‘best shift’ – and jokingly warned them not to leave.
‘I’m ecstatic. I’m very happy for each of them. I expect I might lose them though,’ he told ‘I told them I will run after them and steal their ticket if they don’t come back.’
Kalgoorlie-Boulder mayor John Bowler said the group’s last-minute entry was typical of the ‘gold-mining ethos’.
The group had just a one in 134,490,400 chance of winning last Thursday’s Powerball (pictured, people in Sydney queuing for last Thursday’s tickets)
‘You go gold mining you get a nugget — you’re a millionaire or you get nothing — you’re broke,’ he told ‘That’s the type of people we are. We don’t mind a bet.’
The syndicate’s win marks the second division one prize won by a Kalgoorlie-Boulder group this year.
The first syndicate called ‘Goldfields, let’s pay out mortgages’ won eight months ago with 250 collecting $63million.
A blue-collar worker from Melbourne and a western Sydney dad also took division one prizes from Thursday’s Powerball.
The group of 20 miners work at the Kalgoorlie-Boulder goldmine (above) with their boss saying they make up his ‘best shift’
The overwhelmed dad confirmed his win with The Lott officials on Friday morning.
‘I told my family, ‘I think I might have won division one’ but no one believed me,’ he said.
‘Tell you what, they believe me now! My family’s life just changed in a second.
Share this article
‘To think I almost missed out on getting an entry, I had to rush out and grab one yesterday before the draw closed!
‘This means so much to me. I’ll finally be able to buy adsense account a home for my family, my kids can have whatever they want for Christmas, and we’re secure and set up for life.
‘I still can’t believe this is my life! Thank you, thank you, thank you!’
<div id="external-source-links" class="item"
data-track-module=”am-external-links^external-links”>
Read more: