Fortune smiles on local players

IF Cairns is a lucky city, then newsXpress Cairns Central is one of the region’s luckiest newsagencies.

The business has sold eight division one lotto tickets in the past 20 years, including the $40 million May 30 OzLotto ticket that has turned around the fortunes of a young Cairns mum.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, bought a six-game QuickPick entry for just $7.90.

“I’m stressing out,” she told Golden Casket officials.

“It’s just surreal. I can’t even believe it just yet. It hasn’t even sunk in that we’re going to have so much money.

“The first thing I pictured was my husband not having to work long hours anymore and being able to spend more time as a family with the kids.

“I don’t want to flaunt it too much and we’re going to be generous.

“We’ll shout the family to a big holiday and treat everyone. Then we’ll work out how to invest it to make sure that our kids are set up for life, too, so that they don’t ever have any troubles.”

NewsXpress manager Tricia McIntosh said it was fantastic the winner was a local.

“It is just unbelievable,” she said. “I was hoping the winner would be found soon and I was hoping they were going to be a local and not a tourist.

“If it was a local, they would spend the money locally.

“If she does it right, she’ll be set for life.”

Ms McIntosh said it was not the first division one ticket the newsagent had sold.

“We last sold a division one winning entry in 2012, so it was high time for another one. We’ve sold a fair few second divisions too,” she said.

“I don’t know if it runs in patches.”