International: Australian Man Wins Lottery Three Times in One NightFor a Sydney grandfather, it was third time lucky and second time and first.
The 60-year-old bought three tickets at three separate stores all with the same numbers for a Saturday night Lotto draw and was among 20 winning tickets for the top prize, lottery officials said Monday.
The three tickets scooped a total of 494,326.44 Australian dollars (US$346,028). Had he only bought one ticket as he originally planned he only would have won A$183,083.86.
The winner, whose identity was not released, bought one ticket and then went on vacation. Fearing that the ticket he purchased wasn't for Saturday's draw, he got a friend to buy another. Then when he got back from vacation, he was concerned the friend hadn't bought the right ticket, so he bought a third just in case.
"When we returned home we found that our friend had got a bit confused and we weren't sure what entry he had put on so we put on all our regular games as normal, and that's how we ended up having a third entry in the same draw," the man said in comments released by New South Wales Lotteries.
"Having the same entry three times was not done intentionally and can only be described as the luckiest bungle we have ever made," he added.
NSW Lotteries officials said they could not cite any previous occasion when a single winner has won three times in the same draw, although a handful of people have won twice.
