More than a month after the winning numbers were drawn, a group of Boonah friends, who call themselves the Boonah Buccaneers, have finally checked their monthly Keno ticket and discovered they’d scored a sweet $57,000 win.
The Scenic Rim residents won the Keno Classic 8 Spot jackpot in Keno draw 848, drawn Friday 30 May 2025 and look forward to a sweet $57,610.90.
The thrilled group of lifelong friends revealed they’d been sharing a monthly Keno ticket for more than a decade, but admitted they had taken a while to check this winning one.
“I’m blown away by it all. I still can’t believe it!” one of the winning men exclaimed when speaking to an official from Keno.
“It took us a while to check the ticket as we’re a group of friends who get together about every month and share game of Keno. We don’t tend to check our ticket until the following catch-up.
“We’ve been catching up for lunch and sharing a game of Keno for the past 15 to 17 years. I honestly don’t know where we’re up to.
“We always play the same set of special numbers. They include birthdates and street numbers, those kinds of things.
“We usually chuck in $20 each and play a game or two.
“We only got around to catching up today at the pub and that’s when we realised, we’d won $57,000!
“We looked at each other and said, ‘Jeez, that’s a lot of money!’.
“We couldn’t believe it.”
The gleeful Boonah Buccaneers shared they would be splitting the prize equally and looking to make a few upgrades with their newfound treasure.
“We’ve all been sharing the different ways we’d use the prize,” he shared.
“I’d love to surprise my wife with a cruise and look to do a few upgrades in our life.
“In the meantime, we’ll rub our hands together and feel very lucky!”
The group’s winning Keno Classic entry was purchased from Boonah Tavern, 88 High Street, Boonah.
Boonah Tavern owner Lynda Mifsud shared the entire venue was electric when the win came across the screens back in May.
“I was in the middle of serving one of our wonderful customers when I saw the win come up on our Keno screens. We were so excited we rung our bell behind the bar and the entire venue started to cheer,” she said.
“We will be sharing the winning news with all of our customers and hoping to make it the talk of the town.
“We only opened 18 months ago, and this is our first ever jackpot win, so it is special.
“Congratulations to our special winner and thank you for choosing to come to Boonah Tavern!”
In 2024, Keno players across the eastern states of mainland Australia celebrated more than 76 million wins collectively worth more than $1. billion.
During this time, Keno crowned 23 millionaires and multi-millionaires who collectively took home more than $54.9 million. Ten of these major winners were Queenslanders, including a Crows Nest man whose favourite numbers scored him $5.5 million.
Queenslanders enjoyed more than 26.9 million Keno wins totalling more than $461.2 million at pubs and clubs across the state in 2024.