$150,000 richer after hospital trip

A Bribie Island woman had an unexpected silver lining to her hospital visit after winning $150,000 on an Instant Scratch-Its ticket.

The Queensland resident’s winning $10 Crosswords Treasure Instant Scratch-Its ticket was bought at Mater News Central, in Stanley Street, South Brisbane.

“Thank you very much!” she said after winning a top prize. “We’re amazed to say the least.

“We bought it during a hospital visit. Winning has been a nice moment during what’s been a really difficult time for us.

“We’re still planning what we’ll do with the prize. Life’s all up in the air at the moment, but this will help us so much.

“I actually thought I’d won $1000 at first. I didn’t realise we had all the words.

“When we took it to cash it in, I was told it was too big to be paid out in-store. That’s when I checked it again and realised I had won much more than $1000.

“It’s absolutely wonderful news. It’s made our week!”

In 2024, there were 142 Instant Scratch-Its top prize winners across The Lott’s jurisdictions who collectively took home more than $11.8 million in top prizes.

During this same time, Instant Scratch-Its players enjoyed more than 25.6 million wins across all prize tiers worth more than $251.4 million.

This equates to almost half a million winners and more than $4.8 million won on Instant Scratch-Its each week.