You may think that the biggest mistake you can make when it comes to our games is not having an entry, however, even after our players have secured their tickets there are still a few mishaps that can happen that see their prize almost slip out of reach.

We’ve rounded up the most common lottery mishaps our winners share with us. Some you'll want to avoid making, while others may prompt you to check the old tickets you have laying around —  and then there is one mishap that most of us wouldn’t mind accidentally making!

Not registering your entry

We currently have 20 unclaimed division one prizes* worth more than $15.99 million across Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria. These are people who have purchased an entry but have not registered it to a players card, so we have no way of contacting them and have to wait for them to check their ticket and come forward to claim their prize. Imagine winning division one and not knowing it!

There are two lessons here. The first is to check your tickets because you could be sitting on one of these life-changing prizes. The second, is to ensure that you register your entries to a player’s card. By registering your ticket to a player’s card, your prize is secure and we know who you are so we can unite you with your prize.

Throwing out your lottery ticket

Imagine discovering there is a missing division one winner in your suburb after you have already thrown out your lottery entry by mistake! It’s important for all players to remember that you need your original lottery ticket to claim your prize, so be sure to keep yours in a safe place!

A Revesby man had to rummage through his bin one morning to find a million-dollar Lotto ticket he'd accidentally thrown away! 

“You wouldn’t believe it, I accidentally threw my ticket out, and I just had to go looking through the bins for the ticket. But we found it!" the winning man said. 
Not answering the phone

We normally call our registered division one winners the first business day after a draw, however, for big draws that offer a division one prize above $50 million, we'll try to reach out to any registered division one winners straight after the draw.

It’s quite often that people don’t answer their phones, despite us trying to deliver some life-changing news. So you may want to rethink ignoring your phone the next time an unknown number is calling! It could be us on the other end.

Not updating your players card contact details

We’re in the business of paying prizes so there's nothing more disheartening than trying to contact a registered player and not having the correct contact details! We want to unite our winners with their windfall as soon as possible and if their contact details are not up to date we simply have to wait for them to come forward to claim their prize.

This mishap happened with our Monday & Wednesday Lotto winner who scored a million-dollar prize! However, we weren't able to contact the winning man as his contact details weren't up to date. It wasn't until he checked his lottery tickets that weekened and realised he'd won! As you could imagine, he had a sleepless weekend due to the excitement of his newfound fortune. 

So, if you’ve moved lately, changed your phone number or your email address then make sure you update your details in your online account or on your players card so we can contact you.

Not checking tickets properly

How do you check your tickets? If you’re looking up the results online and manually marking off the numbers on your ticket, just note that human error happens, and it’s easy to miss a number when checking your ticket yourself! We often call division one winners who didn’t know they had won division one, despite checking their tickets themselves.

We recommend players double-check their tickets at their local outlet or by scanning their ticket at home using the Lott app on their smartphone.

If you have a ticket you haven’t checked yet, why not do it now? Click here.

Buying the same entry twice, and winning twice!

This is a mistake a lot of us wouldn’t mind making! Recently we’ve had some winners who have won division one not once but twice by a happy mistake.

How? Well, one way way we see this happen is when a winner has bought a marked entry into the draw twice - either by forgetting they had already purchased their entry, or another family member doubling up with special numbers.

A Dapto duo screamed with delight when she realised she'd won $1 million in Monday & Wednesday Lotto but nearly passed out when her husband admitted he'd purchased the same entry twice, delivering them another $1 million!

“It’s actually a funny story as to why we ended up with the same entry twice,” the happy husband laughed when we called to confirm the double division one win.

“I forgot to put my wife’s numbers on last week, and she wasn’t too happy with me. So, this week I thought I’d put them on twice to make up for it.
“Lo and behold, this morning she kept crossing off number after number on her ticket, and once we realised we’d won $1 million on one ticket, I thought I should probably tell her about the second identical ticket too.

“My wife has played these numbers for almost three decades and has always said they’d be drawn one day.

“I can’t believe this has happened to us.”

So, as you can see not every mistake is a bad one!

Most of these mishaps are easy to avoid. Simply follow our top three lottery tips:

  • Register your entry and keep your contact details up to date
  • Check your tickets at your local outlet or via the Lott app
  • Answer your phone

Oh, and make sure you don’t throw your entry in the bin!

We can’t wait to hear our next winner’s story! Will it be you?