‘People screaming, champagne popping’: Perth gym buddies scoop entire $80 million Powerball jackpot
A group of women who attend the same Perth gym have taken out the $80 million Powerball jackpot, each winning around $1.8 million.
The West Australian ticket scooped the entire division one pool on Thursday night – the state’s biggest ever lottery win.
A group of 43 women who attend the same Perth gym have won the $80 million Powerball jackpot. Credit:
One of the estimated 43 winners, Lorna, told Radio 6PR she scrambled $5 together in coins from the floor of her car to join in the last-minute syndicate.
“A couple of days ago our leading lady that runs the gym said, ‘I think we should put in for Powerball, come on, $5 each’ and I scraped a couple of coins together out of my parking ticket money … I found $2 on the floor,” she said.
“[The gym group] had their Christmas party last night at our little local restaurant but I couldn’t go, I had another function, so I came home late hopped into bed checked my phone and I had all these missed calls and I thought, ‘Why would the gym be calling me?’
“So I rang them back and said what’s happened, I hope you’re ringing to tell me we’ve won Powerball and she said, ’Yeah, we have … we’ve got it, we’re the sole ticket.
“She said, ‘Get out of bed, get dressed, come down’, and I could hear people screaming and champagne popping in the background … when I got to the restaurant there were all these crazy women who had taken over the restaurant and car park.”
It’s estimated one in every four Australians purchased a ticket to the jackpot draw.
Lorna, who won a Hyundai Kona after taking out Radio 6PR’s rumour file competition earlier this year, said the money would not just help 43 women, but 43 families.
“We are a group ranging from young women to quite elderly women, we go to the gym just to try and keep strong and we just laugh and have a great time and I am so thrilled for all the other women, they are so lovely,” she said.
“I think I am still a little bit in shock, I haven’t slept much … it’s a very hard thing to taken in, it just means a few financial woes have gone for me and a few people I love.”
Lorna said the money would help many of the women who own small businesses and have struggled through the pandemic, particularly the gym owner.
The group attend Curves gym in Beldon, in Perth’s northern suburbs.
The win eclipses WA’s previous highest lotto win of $50 million in 2015.
The biggest division one prize won by an individual in Australia was $107 million ticket sold to a Sydney nurse in 2019.
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