A R15 lottery ticket has scooped this year’s second biggest Powerball Jackpot, turning a Gauteng retail store worker into an instant multi-millionaire.

The lucky winner somehow didn’t even watch the live Powerball draw on TV in which her ticket matched all five numbers and the Powerball, instantly changing her life and making her R31.6 million richer.
She woke up the next day, got ready for work as usual, not knowing that she had just entered SA’s millionaires’ club. She only found out while at work that she has won big in the lottery when she visited the same shop where she bought her life-changing R15 lottery ticket.

The pleasant surprise seemed way too big a secret for her to keep; the lucky winner confided in her brother who was the only person she shared the good news with.Anxiety and disbelief however still got the better of her throughout the day as she found herself constantly checking her ticket which she had kept safely in her wallet.

She said she may have at least once in every hour kept double-checking it making sure what she was seeing was real. “I didn’t know whether to cry or scream, I just didn’t believe what I was seeing,” she said.
Although she says she’s never thought she would one day win a lottery jackpot, she always fantasized about driving big cars. “I’ve always seen myself driving a big car like a BMW X6,” she said while adding that she considered herself a careful spender.

She had recently won R4 500 in one of the lottery games; little did she know that barely three months later she was to win a life-changing R30-million plus Powerball Jackpot.
She’s a regular lottery player that spends between R70 and R100 every month using different numbers playing the Lotto, LottoPlus and Powerball games.

The lucky mother of one who is also expecting her second baby soon is planning to acquire a new home and car with some of her winnings. She also plans to travel and use some of the money as start-up capital for her own business.
Now that her life has turned for the better in a big way, she’s now ready to take up a new hobby of going to the gym regularly and get to spend more time with her family.

This year’s biggest Powerball jackpot was R42-million also won by a Gauteng player. Other big Powerball jackpots this year include R23.2 million won by a KwaZulu-Natal player in January while a Pretoria lottery player walked away with R21.4-million last month.

Powerball and Powerball Plus draws get broadcast live on e.tv at 9pm on Tuesday and Friday evenings while ticket sales close 30 minutes before every draw.