What would you do if you won millions and millions of rands?

It’s a sore point in the office that a majority of the winners over the years have decided to keep their old jobs, when winning the Lotto is clearly the ultimate way to live the holiday.

Some lucky person is currently sitting on a very large amount of money which they have yet to claim, but we’ll get to that later. For now, let’s head on over to News24 for a list of the five biggest Lotto and PowerBall winners of all time.

Although all of the winners chose to remain anonymous (I would too), we do have a bit of insight into who they were and how their circumstances changed.

PowerBall:

PowerBall Jackpot: R232 million

• Location: Cape Town
• Winner: Anonymous
• Date: February 19, 2019

This record-breaking PowerBall was won by a man in his 50s from Cape Town who worked in a blue-collar job and had no intention of quitting work. He picked his own numbers and spent just over R22 on his ticket.

His plan for the money was to give his children the best education possible. I have a feeling his anonymity didn’t last for long after he did this interview, though.

That was R22 well spent.

PowerBall Jackpot: R145 million

• Location: Secunda
• Winner: Anonymous
• Date: August 3, 2018

An engineer from Secunda used his dreams to determine his numbers.

The young man, who did not want his name to be disclosed, had picked the number 4 as his PowerBall, based on the “Fafi” system of dream analysis and associating objects or events with numbers, having dreamt of a fight before he played.

The winner bought his R20 ticket from Evander Diensstasie at 1 Rotter Dam Road, Evander, and decided to keep his ticket in his sock over the weekend until he was ready to claim.

He didn’t leave the house until he made the trip to collect his winnings.

PowerBall Jackpot: R102 million

• Location: Bloemfontein
• Winner: Anonymous
• Date: June 3, 2011

This ticket was almost thrown away when the scanner failed to identify it as the winning ticket.

The winner said it might as well be discarded as it probably wasn’t a lucky ticket, but the cashier finally got the scanner working at the third attempt and a message appeared to say the player needed to visit a lottery office.

The man bought his ticket at the Spitskop Total fuel station in Langenhovenpark, Bloemfontein.

He planned on using his money to expand his business.

This winner could be bumped down to fourth place once the recent PowerBall winner comes forward.

IOL reports that an R141 million winning PowerBall ticket was purchased in the Western Cape and has not been claimed.

Bought at a Spar in Groot Brak, the ticket wager was made for a mere R105 at the Quick Pay section of the grocery store.

This makes for the third biggest jackpot winner in South Africa joining the R232 million winner in February and the R145 million winner in August last year.

On Monday, Ithuba confirmed that the ticket holder is yet to make contact with the National Lottery Operator to claim their winning ticket.

Check your tickets. You could be sitting on a fortune.

Back to News24 for the rest of the winners.

PowerBall Jackpot: R91 million

• Location: Western Cape
• Winner: Anonymous
• Date: February 12, 2010

This 43-year-old woman from the Western Cape didn’t tell anyone except her husband that she had won until after collecting her winnings.

They planned to use the money to buy a new home and a car for their eldest child.

Another person, deaf-mute cleaner Stanley Philander, had been widely and wrongly reported to be the winner after he contacted the media to claim he was. He had a ticket with the winning numbers, but lottery operator Gidani clarified that he had bought his ticket after the draw had taken place.

Not a good day for Stanley.

PowerBall Jackpot: R87 million

• Location: Limpopo
• Winner: Anonymous
• Date: July 22, 2016

A man from Limpopo says that he prayed every time he bought a ticket and his prayers eventually came true.

A 45-year-old government worker, he said he had no plans to give up his job and would use the money to help others who were in need of assistance.

He insisted that he would not make any big changes to his life, although he was keen to buy a mansion in Gauteng or Mpumalanga.

Yeah, a mansion is a pretty big change, buddy.

Over to the Lotto Jackpot winners.

Lotto Jackpot: R110 million

• Location: Cape Town
• Winners: Anonymous
• Date: January 27, 2018

This was the biggest Lotto draw of all time.

There were four winning tickets in the biggest Lotto draw of all time, each worth R27.5m. It took 21 rollovers to create the R110m jackpot, with no winners for two-and-a-half months.

One of the lucky winners left it almost a full year to come forward, claiming the prize just a day before it expired. He was described as a 58-year-old from Ravensmead but did not want any further information to be divulged.

Earlier this month, another person claimed their winnings a year after buying a ticket. Check your tickets, people.

Lotto Jackpot: R79 million 

• Location: Cape Town
• Winner: Anonymous
• Date: May 4, 2019

The winner of this tidy sum revealed that she would be giving R2 million to the petrol attendant who had always been polite and helpful.

She also intended to buy a house with a garden for her grandson to play in, and pay for her daughter to quit her job as a call-centre agent so she could fulfil a dream of studying towards a psychology degree.

Finally, someone stopped working.

Lotto Jackpot: R58 million

• Location: Cape Town
• Winners: Anonymous
• Date: May 12, 2018

It was the best Mother’s Day ever for this Cape Town woman who decided to give the Lotto a chance after only ever playing PowerBall.

She continued working for a further six months before taking early retirement.

Lotto Jackpot: R58 million

• Location: South Africa
• Winners: Anonymous
• Date: April 24, 2013

This was the biggest Lotto prize of all time, totalling R116 million, with each of the two winners getting R54 million.

The biggest Lotto Plus 1 prize of all time was split between two players, including one grandfather from Pretoria who ran organisations for the elderly and children living with disabilities.

He insisted that he would use his winnings to support his local community, having found it “heart-breaking” that his charity previously did not have enough money to help out everyone as he would have liked.

Bless.

[source:news24&iol]