The hunt for the winner of Australia's biggest-ever lottery prize of more than A$58 million ($73.22 million) intensified today after the winning ticket was traced to a Victorian newsagent.
Tattersall's spokesman Gerry Devine said the single Powerball draw ticket was bought from Lakeside Newsagency, Reservoir, in Melbourne's northern
suburbs, but the winner or winners were not yet known.
"We don't know who owns it, whether it's one person or more," Mr Devine told Fairfax Radio Network.
"They don't know unless they've checked the numbers.
"At this stage, if they had checked the numbers or watched the draw or checked the numbers in the paper this morning they would have been on to us well by now."
Mr Devine said the notion that the winning ticket could be sitting lying around in the winner's home or on a car seat was "a dreadful thought".
But he said there was no deadline to claim the tax-free winning loot.
"The good thing about Tatts lotteries, unlike the lotteries overseas and that ... (is the collection deadline is) forever," he said.
"Their great-grandchildren, if they found it at the bottom of the drawer one day, could take it into Tatts and get the money."
In the game of Powerball, five balls are drawn from one machine and then a single ball, the Powerball, is drawn from a second machine.
To win the first division prize, players must select all six numbers.
The A$58.7 million Powerball win comes just weeks after the current record of A$47.98 million was won in OZ Lotto.
- AAP
