Katherine has been revealed as the Northern Territory’s 2018 Lottery Hotspot. 

In May of this year, a Katherine man won $2,013,144.80. 

However, as his ticket was unregistered, the mystery of the missing lottery winner was the talk of the town for five weeks, until he finally checked the ticket that had been stuck on his fridge the whole time. 

It is the second consecutive year that Katherine Exposure Photographics made the Lottery Hotspot list as it also sold a division one winning entry worth $1.4 million in 2017.

On the same day the Katherine man came forward to claim his winnings a Gold Coast couple doing a lap of Australia won $150,000 with a scratchie, bought at Top News.

The couple had already won $10 million earlier in the year, with a division one prize in Oz Lotto.

At the time, the couple admitted they were stunned to have won another major windfall.

Tatts spokeswoman Bronwyn Spencer said the Katherine millionaire was just one of the many happy lottery winners across the NT in the past year.

“While only three lottery players from the Northern Territory took home the coveted division one prize, there were thousands of other winners across the Territory who took home prizes in other divisions,” she said.

“From overseas holidays and travel around Australia, to new homes and new cars, each ecstatic winner is now enjoying their win with their nearest and dearest.”

Ms Spencer said the research clearly showed lottery wins can happen anywhere. 

”We’ve seen division one wins land far and wide across the territory from Darwin to Katherine and beyond.

“In each case, every winner had their own dream of how they would use their windfall to enrich their lives.  My favourite was a man from Berry Springs who hadn’t checked his ticket because he was on holiday. To beat his post-holiday blues, he checked his entry and discovered he had won,” Ms Spencer said. 

For the Katherine man who won the multi-million dollar lottery prize, life was not expected to change too much. 

“Some of it will get used on things we need, but the rest will make a nice little nest egg for our future,” he said at the time.

“The win won’t stop me from entering Tattslotto again. I’ll definitely hold onto these winning numbers.”

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