A Darlington couple are celebrating after a simple change to the numbers they’ve been playing for years led to a $50,000 Keno win.
The happy pair scored the $50,000 Keno Spot 8 prize in draw 210710 436, drawn Saturday 10 July 2021.
When an official from Keno called the winners, they recounted how the winning moment came to be.
“We had popped into the venue for a bite to eat when we decided to play some Keno,” the winning woman explained.
“I have been marking my Keno tickets with the same special numbers for a long, long time.
“My husband was going to put on a ticket for us when he asked what numbers I usually play.
“As I was saying them, he kept saying, ‘yep, yep, got it!’. Then he showed me the ticket and not one of my numbers was on there.
“My husband said my numbers never win a major prize, so rather than using them, he used all of the numbers directly beside them. So instead of picking 25, he chose 24 and 26 and so on.
“Then when the draw was happening, my husband noticed some of the numbers.
“So, I grabbed the ticket and he started screaming each number out for me to check. I was sitting there going, ‘yep, yep, we’ve got it! Yes, we’ve got that one too’.
“We couldn’t believe it when all of the numbers came up!
“We were jumping up and down and screaming! Everyone in the venue knew we’d won and were congratulating us.
“It was such an incredible moment! We were going berserk!
“We stayed for a little bit to celebrate with some drinks but then we went home to try and let the news sink in.”
When asked how they intended to enjoy their prize, the overjoyed woman explained they’d already made a list.
“As soon as we got into the car that night, we were busy planning. We kept saying, ‘now we can do this and this and this’," she shared.
“We are going to pay off a few little bills we have and then fix up our cars.
“Then we are upgrading a holiday we already had planned! It’s going to be really luxurious, and we aren’t going to miss out on anything!
“It’s going to be the trip of a lifetime.”
The winning entry was purchased at Flagstaff Hotel, 1497 Main South Road, Darlington.
Flagstaff Hotel venue manager Alex Sorella said the entire venue was in celebration mode following the major win.
“What a fantastic win for our patrons,” he exclaimed.
“The atmosphere was absolutely electric when the couple realised they’d won!
“It was an incredible moment and we can’t wait to experience our next major prize win.
“Congratulations to the winning couple, we wish them the absolute best and hope they can truly enjoy it.”
In 2020, there were 37 Keno Spot 8, 9 and 10 winners across South Australia who scored more than $5.81 million.
The Spot 10 prize was won twice during this time – a win worth more than $1.3 million was won by a Croydon Park man in February, while a win with more than $2.4 million was won by Taperoo man in November.