Forget chocolates and candles, a Forest Lake mum received a $2.3 million Gold Lotto win from her Secret Santa. 

The Brisbane resident held one of the 17 division one winning entries in Gold Lotto draw 4221 on Friday 31 December 2021. Each division one winning entry scored $2,352,941.18. 

“I received this as a Secret Santa gift from my brother-in-law,” she explained when speaking with us.

“He’d bought a ticket for everyone, but this was the one that won division one. 

“It wasn’t until yesterday that I checked this ticket. My friend also had an entry into the draw and had mentioned that she didn’t win anything, so I decided to check mine. 

“When I scanned my ticket online, I saw all the numbers lit up, but I didn’t know what that meant. So, I called my sister and brother-in-law, and they told me to come over and they’d check the ticket for me. 

“You should’ve been there when we scanned the ticket together. We were so blown away! 

“There was so much screaming, cheering, and crying. It felt like a dream-come-true moment! 

“It feels so nice to know we’ve won multi-millions. We feel incredibly happy. I can’t begin to explain how much this means to us. It’s unbelievable! 

“I’m going to share most of my prize with my family, of course. The rest I’ll use to buy myself a small house and set my kids up for the future. 

“It’s been challenging these past few years, so this makes everything so much easier for all of us.”

Her winning entry was purchased at Nextra Forest Lake News, Shop 23-24 Forest Lake Village Shopping, Forest Lake Boulevard, Forest Lake. 

Nextra Forest Lake News team member Mikaela Hullah said they’d personally congratulated the winning family. 

“It’s an incredible win for them,” she said. 

“The winners called us and told us this fantastic news and explained the ticket was actually a Secret Santa gift. How amazing is that? 

“We are so happy for the winners and wish them all the best with their prize. Hopefully, it makes a great start to the year for them. 

“We were so happy to have a division one win already in 2022, and we can’t wait for our next one!”