A Mount Sheridan man may have found the ultimate excuse for being late to a family dinner, winning more than $200,000 in a game of Keno.
The Cairns resident bagged the Keno 9 Spot jackpot in Keno draw 111, drawn Thursday 18 September 2025. He looks forward to a total prize of $204,519.50.
The winning man was still grinning ear to ear when an official from Keno spoke with him.
“I was very surprised!” he laughed.
“I popped into the venue after work last week. While I was there, I put my normal game of Keno on, and I won about $19 so I just played a couple more games with the winnings.
“I was sitting there, and I looked at the Keno TV and just went, ‘Sh**! Those numbers look familiar!’.
“I realised all nine of them were mine, and I just went, ‘Yoohoo! You beauty!’.
“A moment later, my wife called asking when I’d be home for dinner. I told her I was just busy at the Keno counter because we’d just won some money.
“I told her how much and she didn’t believe me. She said ‘No, you’re joking!”. I said, ‘Darling I wouldn’t joke about this right now!’.
“After that, I don’t think she cared at all if I was going to be late for dinner or not!
“And I’m retiring at the end of the year, too, so it’s a huge bonus. It’ll certainly come in handy.
“Thank you so much!”
His winning Keno Classic entry was purchased from Brothers Leagues Club Cairns, 99-101 Anderson Street, Manunda.
In FY25, Keno players across the eastern states of mainland Australia celebrated more than 76 million wins collectively worth more than $1.2 billion.
During this time, Keno crowned 20 millionaires and multi-millionaires who collectively took home more than $57.9 million. Four of these major winners were Queenslanders, including a Townsville man who scored $4.4 million.
Queenslanders enjoyed more than 27.3 million Keno wins totalling more than $450.7 million at pubs and clubs across the state in FY25.