A Woden man has emerged as Canberra’s newest multi-millionaire after discovering he was the mystery winner of a $40 million Powerball prize, thanks to a TV news report.

The ACT resident held the only division one winning entry nationally in Powerball on Thursday June 25th, but had no idea of his good fortune until almost two weeks after the draw.

As the winning ticket wasn’t registered to a player card or online account, officials from The Lott had no way of contacting the winner directly and instead had to wait for him to come forward.

After hearing the news about an unclaimed $40 million prize in the ACT, the unsuspecting winner decided to check his ticket.

“I had completely forgot about my ticket until I saw on the news that they were looking for a winner with an unregistered ticket. I thought, ‘Maybe it’s me!’.

“The ticket had just been sitting in my wallet this whole time. I really still can’t believe it.”

The man says he plans to keep working and save the prize to set up generational wealth.