Melbournian becomes the first ever Lottoland millionaire

A Melbourne grandmother has been announced as the first ever millionaire winner by online lottery betting site Lottoland.

The 56-year-old Victorian woman won $1,315,650.04 in the Division 2 prize on July 4 after she successfully matched five from five main numbers – 16, 39, 47, 53, 71 – by betting on the American MegaMillions Lottery, and she was only one number off from scoring the major Division 1 prize.

She claims her luck was based off the choice of a “completely random” set of numbers and that she was “numb” upon hearing of her win.

“I received a phone call from Lottoland and I was ecstatic,” said the grandmother of eleven. “I’m going to visit my family in Romania – I haven’t been there in 20 years – and maybe I’ll buy a house,” she added.

The winner signed up to Lottoland in January 2017 and had reportedly been betting across Australian and international lotteries since she opened her account, scoring a number of smaller wins along the way. She used the Lottoland Subscription feature, which registers a member’s chosen numbers for a set number of draws on their chosen lotteries, to score her win.

It is officially the single largest prize money ever claimed by a Lottoland member since the company first launched in Australia in 2016. Despite their advertisements promising frequent life-changing jackpots, the company has paid out around $10 million to Australian members in much smaller payouts.

The announcement of the win comes at an interesting time, given Lottoland was recently fined £150,000 by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission after being found guilty of misleading advertising making customers think they were buying actual lottery tickets rather than placing bets on the winning numbers of lotteries.

Lottoland uses Lotto Betting, which is essentially means members place wagers on the outcome of a lottery instead of actually purchasing a ticket to go in the draw. In the Melbourne winner’s case, she correctly guessed and bet on the five main numbers in the MegaMillions Lottery. You can read more about Lottoland in our official review here.