Neighbours from Kew have taken the term ‘being neighbourly’ to a whole new level after a simple lesson to teach two of them how to play Keno led to a $2.4 million win.
The four New South Wales patrons held the Keno Classic 10 Spot winning entry in game 296 on Sunday 6 June 2021 worth $2,430,035.
Speaking with an official from Keno this morning, the jubilant winners explained how their win came to be.
“We didn’t sleep last night. We just kept thinking about our prize!” one of the winners laughed.
“This prize is actually shared with our neighbours.
“We all had such a busy day on Sunday, so we decided to go out for dinner to relax.
“We like to play Keno every now and again, but our neighbours hadn’t played before, so we decided to show them how.
“They picked half the numbers, and we picked the other half.
“We actually didn’t check the ticket!
“We’d heard on the news that they were looking for a mystery Keno winner and we just kept thinking ‘there’s no way! It couldn’t be us!’.
“We went and checked our ticket. We were blown away! These kinds of things don’t happen to people like us.
“We’re on cloud nine!
“It’s such an incredible win. We never imagined the day we’d be millionaires.
“We couldn’t be happier to share this with our neighbours! We are going over to their place this weekend to celebrate.”
When asked how they intended to enjoy their portion of the prize, one of the happy couples said they were still pondering plans.
“We will definitely share our prize with our family, and there’s some renovations we need to do,” one of the winning women said.
“My husband also wants to do up his car. I am not sure what we will do with the rest, but we will be having a lot of fun!”
The winning Keno Classic 10 Spot winning entry was purchased at Royal Hotel Kew, 2 Ocean Drive, Kew.
Royal Hotel Kew co-owner Scott Coman said he was ecstatic his patrons had discovered their multi-million-dollar win.
“I am so glad they’ve discovered the news,” he said.
“We had so many people coming in and checking their tickets, hoping they were the winners.
“It’s just so great that they’re local patrons.
“Hopefully, they come in so we can congratulate them in person because we are just so happy for them.
“This is the biggest Keno prize we’ve had at the hotel, and we hope it’s the start of a winning streak.”
The prize is the third biggest Keno prize won in Australia so far this year. It continues the Mid North Coast’s winning streak. In April this year, a $5.8 million Keno Mega Millions ticket was sold at Crescent Head Country Club.
In 2020, Keno players across the eastern states of mainland Australia celebrated more than 59.9 million wins collectively worth more than $840.6 million.
During this time, Keno crowned 19 millionaires and multi-millionaires who collectively took home more than $42.3 million. Nine of these major winners were from New South Wales and the ACT, including a Newcastle woman who was stunned to pocket a Keno Mega Millions 10 Spot prize of more than $5.4 million.
Players in New South Wales and the ACT enjoyed more than 25.3 million Keno wins totalling more than $393.2 million at pubs and clubs across the state in 2020.
Keno players can also enter into the monthly second chance draw for the chance to win one of five $1,000 prizes by scanning their ticket at win.secondchance.keno.com.au.