A Wyndham Vale father has won the entire $50 million Powerball jackpot after checking his ticket while watching AFL on television with his son.
The Victorian held the only division one winning entry in Powerball draw 1556, drawn on Thursday 12 March 2026. The prize was the sole top division win nationally.
Attempts to contact the winner shortly after the draw were unsuccessful because an outdated mobile number was listed on his online account with The Lott. An email alert later prompted him to check his ticket.
“Is it true?” he gasped when speaking to an official from The Lott.
“I actually saw your first email and I didn’t even open it. I assumed it was junk and deleted it.
“But then I received another email, and I thought, ‘maybe I’ll check the app’.
“Unbelievable! Fifty million dollars! That’s insane!
“I’m in shock! I’m just sitting here watching the footy with my son. When my wife gets home, have I got news for her! I think she won’t believe me, but when I show her the ticket, she’ll get the shakes and start crying.”
The man purchased a four-game Powerball entry through The Lott app. The ticket cost $6.30.
“I only ever play the smallest entry. You don’t need a big entry to win,” he said.
“I normally use our birthday numbers for my tickets, but I had a small win the other day and I thought I’d select some random numbers for tonight’s draw.
“I decided to choose number 14 for the Powerball number as it’s my favourite football number.”
“I always used to say to my friends and family that if I won $50 million, I would dedicate myself to helping others. It’s almost like I put it in the universe! I’d like to look at some kind of work that helps the community”
He said he had often thought about what he might do if he won a large prize.
“I’m just trying to comprehend this at the moment,” he exclaimed.
“I always used to say to my friends and family that if I won $50 million, I would dedicate myself to helping others. It’s almost like I put it in the universe! I’d like to look at some kind of work that helps the community.
“I can’t wait to also go on realestate.com and browse for houses to buy. I never thought we’d be able to buy our very own home after renting for such a long time!
“We’re not going to buy anything out of this world. We’ll continue to be humble and buy a house in our suburb.
“We’ll also look to buy each of our children a house of their own. We’ll all be mortgage free!
“This is so life changing. I can’t thank you enough!”
The win adds to Victoria’s tally in recent draws. Three of the four Powerball division one prizes in 2026 have been won by players in the state.
Across the country, the latest draw produced almost 1.33 million winners across divisions two to nine, sharing $32,008,990.40 in prize money. Three division two winners each received $295,715.05.
The winning numbers in draw 1556 were 5, 6, 18, 9, 14, 4 and 13. The Powerball number was 14.
There was one division one winning entry nationally, held by the Victorian ticket.
The Lott’s division one tally for the current financial year has reached 293 wins, including 113 by Tatts customers.
Next week’s draws include a $15 million Oz Lotto jackpot on Tuesday and a $10 million Powerball prize on Thursday.
In 2025, more than 121.6 million winners across Australia shared over $3.93 billion in prize money from lottery games. During the last financial year, official lotteries contributed more than $1.66 billion through state lottery taxes and donations to support community initiatives such as hospitals, health research, disaster relief and education.
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