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Mom wins largest individual Powerball in Australian lottery history

Posted at 8:05 PM, Jan 17, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-17 21:05:13-05

A mom from Sydney won Australia's biggest individual prize in history on Thursday, cashing out with more than $107 million.

The Lott, Australia's official lotteries site, said in a statement that the winner, who wishes to remain anonymous, wasn't sure what was going on when officials called to tell her the big news.

"I don't understand -- is this actually real? Wait -- are you telling me I've won $107 million?! Oh my god! That is just so much money!" the statement reports she said.

The mother, who works in health care, said she doesn't plan to retire, but instead will "do more health work for causes important" to her. She also said she will share her winnings with her family.

"All the win gives me is a chance to go and do the things I have always wanted to do," the winner said.

The Lott confirmed the winning ticket was bought online, and the winner said she picked the winning numbers of 20, 18, 33, 22, 11, 26 and 4, plus the Powerball number 9, randomly.

"I'm not sure how I will be able to sleep tonight, but for now I'm going to go have a cheap glass of chardonnay."

Australia's Powerball is modeled after the US version, but players can win by only matching one number.

The Lott said a total of 3,856,275 prizes worth more than $68.4 million were also won in the drawing, including two winning entries that each took home a prize of $94,792.90.