A Taigum woman who was wondering how she could afford the $900 repair bill on her car has won a whopping $1.57 million at the Brighton Hotel on Saturday 3rd October 2009.

The retail shop assistant, who wishes to remain anonymous, said she and her partner had not slept since they won the 10-spot jackpot while having an early dinner at the pub.

“Every now and again, it keeps going through my head that we’re millionaires,” she said.

Despite her new millionaire status, the woman isn’t giving up her day job - returning to work first thing the Monday morning after the win.

“On Thursday, we took our car in to get fixed and they told us it would cost $900, and we thought ‘we’re going to have to save up for that’”, she said. “We honestly didn’t know how we were going to pay for it.”

Having struggled for so long, the couple intend to spend their winnings sensibly and have already begun searching online for a new home and an investment property.

There are also plans for a well deserved holiday - and, of course a new car.

Coming from a family of 11, the woman said she and her eight brothers and sisters grew up without much, so being a millionaire was going to take some getting used to.

“I’m from a poor family, so this means so much to me,” she said.

Brighton Hotel Venue Manager, Leigh Nelson, said they were ecstatic about the win.

“We’re thrilled to have such a big win at the hotel, and even more thrilled it was one of our regular customers,” Leigh said.

According to the winner, her partner was the regular Keno player in the duo, playing with the same numbers - 1,2,5,9,10,46,62,63,68 and 76 - for the past four years.

“On Saturday night, my partner said ‘let’s go out for dinner’. We had no money, so she just bought the one Keno ticket.”

“She said to me ‘I’m gonna hit it big with these numbers’.”

“While we were eating dinner we watched our game and she said we had 10 numbers but I couldn’t believe it; I thought we only had eight.

When we finished dinner, we went to the counter and handed the girls the tickets and they started screaming, saying ‘we’ve been waiting for you for half an hour’.”

Brisbane North Keno Business Development Manager, Martin Eustace, said the win cemented the bayside as Queensland’s 2009 Keno hot spot, with the state’s other two multi-million dollar jackpots this year being won in Wynnum and Manly.

However, for those not residing in the Wynnum-Manly area, all is not lost, with more than $1.2 billion having been won by Queenslanders from as far south as Coolangatta to as far north as Cape York over the past five years. �