Less than 24 hours after last night’s monster $50 million Powerball draw, two of the seven winners have already claimed their prizes, with retail outlets that sold winning tickets embracing the country’s excitement following a surge in ticket sales.
Lotto said in a statement that two of New Zealand’s newest millionaires have already claimed more than $7.1m each.
“We don’t yet have any further details to share around the winners, but will share more in the next few days.”
The $50m jackpot was won by seven tickets as no single ticket had the correct Powerball and First Division Lotto numbers needed to win outright.
The winning tickets were bought at Pak’nSave Wairau Rd in Auckland, Victoria St Woolworths in Auckland, Royal Oak Mall Lotto in Auckland, Shop Rite Dairy in Hamilton and New World Hastings.
A staff member at Pak’nSave Wairau Rd said everyone at the supermarket felt surprised and lucky to have sold a winning ticket.
“We have never sold a winner like this at Pak’nSave Wairau Park,” she said.
“I don’t know how many we sold overall but we had a big queue last night.”
The staff member was unsure if the winner would claim their prize in person.
“It may be too much attention for them.”
A staff member at Royal Oak Mall Lotto said they found out they’d sold a winning ticket from a customer who heard the news on the radio.
“We are very excited at the moment,” he said.
“We were very busy yesterday, but we don’t know who the winner is.”
Two players from Auckland bought their tickets on My Lotto.
Another Auckland player, who bought their ticket at Jalaram Dairy, walked away with $600,000 after winning Strike Four.
Earlier, Lotto announced that people could now check their MyLotto tickets online, as all processing from Saturday night’s draw had been completed.
Each of the seven biggest winners will bank $7,180,041 after the prize rolled down to Division Two.
The seven lucky ticket-holders had five correct Lotto numbers and a bonus ball, along with the Powerball.
The winning numbers were 22, 35, 10, 30, 21 and 37 and the bonus ball was number 5.
The Powerball was number 2.
The 14 players who won a $71,429 share of the First Division draw were spread out across the country.
Three players from Auckland brought their tickets on My Lotto, as did a player each from Wellington, Hamilton and Gisborne.
Other tickets were bought at Rockys Superette in Auckland, Paper Plus in Mount Maunganui, New World Westend in Rotorua, Woolworths Hastings, New World Rangiora, New World Three Parks in Wānaka, Lumsden Four Square and Fresh Choice Green Island in Dunedin.
“It’s amazing that Powerball rolled down to Second Division and was shared between seven players – it’s fantastic to see more of our lucky players get to experience what it’s like to win,” said Lotto NZ chief executive Jason Delamore.
“This is going to be life-changing, and not only for the lucky winner themselves, as we know winning big has a huge ripple effect,” Delamore said.
High demand
Yesterday, Lotto punters were urged to take a screenshot of digital tickets ahead of the anticipated scramble to check results after the must-win $50m draw.
Queues spilled onto the streets and stretched inside malls at Lotto stores around the country as an unprecedented two million tickets were expected to be bought by Kiwis hoping to win the biggest jackpot of the year.
Last night, the MyLotto site was closed due to the high demand to check the results.
Must be won
In a must-be-won draw, if no one won Powerball First Division (getting all seven numbers correct) the entire jackpot rolls down to the next Powerball division where there were winners.
If there is more than one winner in a Powerball prize division, the prize is split equally between them.
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