TALK about a hot streak.

The Far North can rightfully call itself the lucky country with six locals becoming instant millionaires this year  one of whom does not even know it yet.

Mt Sheridan Newsagency sold the sixth ticket to win a million-dollar payday in the region this year, a Division 1 prize of $1.338 million in Saturday's Gold Lotto draw.

Efforts to contact the winner had so far proved unsuccessful.

Golden Casket spokesperson Zoe Doebel said the would-be winner had failed to update the contact details on their Winners Circle account making it difficult to track them down.

"We know who it is, but we can't contact them so they don't know they're a winner yet,'' she said.

A further six locals have claimed prizes this year in excess of $200,000, while a Brisbane couple won a Set for Life scratchie bought from a Port Douglas newsagency while visiting for a wedding and claimed the cool top prize of $1 million paid over four years.

All of the lotto successes have been in the Saturday draws.

"Cairns has certainly been a lotto hot spot, especially in the last few months,'' Ms Doebel said. "We haven't done the statistics yet, but it seems like North Queensland has been one of the hot spots around the state.

"It's fortunate for both the winners and local businesses, and great for the local economy.''

Mt Sheridan Newsagency owner Gary Carr said it was the store's biggest win and the first since relocating to the new shopping plaza about three months ago.

"It's a brand new store; we've only been in the store for about 14 weeks so we're as happy as a pig in the proverbial,'' he said.

"We've had the newsagency for about three and a half years and we had a few second division winners, but this is our first big one.

"When people buy their lotto tickets we're quite often talking about what they'd do if they won the money so it's great someone can now do what they talked about.''

NEW CAIRNS.COM.AU COMMENT POLICY
We welcome your comments on this story. Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Comments submitted without a full name and suburb/location will not be considered for publication. Please read our full comment policy and publication guidelines.

Share this article