After playing the same Lotto numbers for nearly 25 years, a Dunedin family has finally won the first division.
Buying a Lotto ticket at the Monte Carlo Milk Bar, in Mosgiel, has been a weekly tradition for a mother and daughter since Lotto was launched in 1987, and the duo have been using the same combination of family ages and birth dates for their lucky numbers every week.
Monte Carlo Milk Bar owner Mike Casey said the duo's $258,754 win last Saturday could not have come at a better time.
The daughter and her husband had been struggling financially since they were made redundant a couple of years ago, he said.
The husband said his wife had had to work a late shift on Saturday night, and he felt guilty.
So he made her a roast dinner and then sat down to watch television.
"Just before the Lotto draw started, I said: 'We're going to win Lotto tonight.'
"Once my wife came home from work, she checked her Lotto family ticket and found that we were winners. We then got no sleep that night as we were so excited," he said.
"This win has made our life so much more comfortable.
"Our first plan is to take some good friends away for a weekend and celebrate. Then we will sort out all the accumulated bills and make a fresh start."
Mr Casey said the store had sold tickets to about four first-division Lotto winners since Lotto started, and two Big Wednesday winners in recent weeks.
Powerball First Division will tomorrow jackpot to an estimated $9 million.
