Australians get second chance at multimillion-dollar US jackpot

More than 100,000 Australians bet on the second-largest US lottery jackpot in history this week but it’s not over yet.

The US Powerball went off yesterday, and one incredibly lucky American woman from the state of Massachusetts won the $AUD960 million ($USD758.7 million) prize.

She claimed the largest single jackpot win in US history and did what we would all do if we won – she promptly quit her job of 32 years.

Although the jackpot has reset to $USD40 million in America, Lottoland Australia is giving its customers one more chance to win hundreds of millions of dollars.

Lottoland is offering its customers the chance to win $AUD886 million on Sunday, due to its unique insurance business model. Known as the US Jackpot Freeze, the lottery is based on the US Powerball numbers and it will be drawn on Sunday at 1 pm AEST (Saturday night at 11 pm ET). However, Lottoland customers will have the chance to win a bigger jackpot.

The lottery operator revealed on its Facebook page that its “unique insurance model gives us the opportunity to create offers like this.”

“As a licensed bookmaker our model works with insurers, including Lloyds of London, to cover the payout of all prizes won by Lottoland’s customer,” the post reads.

“In this case, we have extended our policy through to the US Power draw on Sunday to give Australians one more chance at such an amazing jackpot amount.”

Lottoland servers were working overtime this week as more than 100,000 Australians bet on the US Powerball draw.

CEO of Lottoland Australia, Luke Brill, said the company was prepared for the increase in traffic levels.

“On Sunday traffic levels on the website soared to heights not seen since the online stampede of the record $AUD2.3 billion US Powerball draw in January 2016, which famously caused the Lottoland site to crash on its first week of trading,” he said.

Lottoland launched at the same time the biggest jackpot in US history and the world was on. The influx of Australians trying to win the billion-dollar prize caused the site to crash.

“We have learned our lessons from last time and made improvements accordingly,” Mr Brill said.

We are confident that we can now handle this volume and ensure Australians can dream bigger and bet on this historic draw.”

The draw went off at 1 pm AEST and had 53-year-old, Mavis Wanczyk, not won the multimillion-dollar prize it would’ve grown to more than $1 billion.

Ms Wanczyk, a mother to her 31-year-old daughter and 26-year-old son, told a press conference that she called Mercy Medical Centre in Springfield, Massachusetts and told them that she would not be coming back.

Ms Wanczyk revealed she was stunned when she found out that her ticket had won. She was joined by her mother and two sisters to claim the prize and chose the cash option. She will receive a lump sum payment of $USD480,500,936, which will be $USD336,350,655 after taxes.

You could be just like Ms Wanczyk by entering the Power Freeze before Sunday 12 pm AEST.

You can also participate in a range of other international lotteries including MegaMillions, EuroMillions and WorldMillions.

Sign up to Lottoland or Planet Lottery for access to a range of international lotteries and receive a range of special offers as a new registered customer.