Melbourne dad wins $80 million in lottery after losing job during Covid lockdown

The lucky winner had been working as a cleaner to make ends meet. File photo / Ashmini Chaudhary, Unsplash

A cleaner from North Melbourne has nabbed Australia's third-biggest lottery prize in history: A$80 million (NZ$83.8m).

The Powerball was drawn on Thursday at 8.30pm and for more than 12 hours the identity of the winner remained a mystery to lottery officials.

Around 11am today, The Lott revealed that the newly minted millionaire was a middle-aged dad who had lost his job to the coronavirus pandemic and was working as a cleaner to survive.

"I am so excited. I checked my ticket late last night. I couldn't sleep after that!" the man told The Lott.

"I lost my job during one of the many lockdowns here in Melbourne. We had only just bought a home and didn't see it coming.

"I've been working as a cleaner ever since to make ends meet.

"Like for so many people, these lockdowns have been really tough for our family.

"But I've always said, you've just gotta keep trying. Now, look what's happened."

One in 134 million chance

The man had a one in 134 million chance of picking the right combination of numbers.

Those numbers were 17, 10, 4, 26, 19, 23, 21 and the Powerball was 7.

He said he was going to use the staggering amount of money to give his children a headstart in life.

"I am certainly going to pay off the mortgage and the other bills we have to begin with," he said.

"We're going to set up our kids for life."

An estimated one in four Aussies purchased a ticket for the draw.

No-one picked the winning numbers last week, causing the A$60m prize money to jackpot to $80m.

The odds of winning division one in Powerball with a standard 12-game QuickPick are one in 11.2 million, according to The Lott.

That is the same entry type that a Sydney mum held in 2019 when she took home A$107m and became the country's biggest individual lottery winner.

Thursday night's A$80m jackpot is the equal largest lottery so far this year, with another A$80m prize snapped up back in April.

The prize was split evenly between two NSW residents.

'Only old people win'

A man from Smithfield in Sydney's west claimed the A$40m prize in April, but nearly lost the money because he'd put in the wrong mobile number.

"I checked my ticket on the weekend. Oh my god. My heart was jumping out of my body. It was pounding. Even now it's racing," the winner told The Lott.

"I'd heard there was another Powerball winner they were trying to contact. I even said to my friend, 'We'll never win, only old people win.'

"They said you'd been ringing but I didn't get a call. There was a digit wrong on my mobile number.

"When I saw I'd won, I had tears running down my face.

"It's a big win. It's a big whirlwind."