The Winner's Room: Behind the scenes of a Lotto draw
Friday, 31 August 2018
Winning lotto is not something you can bank on, but you can dream about it.
And dreams sometimes come true. Especially if you're one of the 33 Kiwis who have become overnight millionaires since January this year.
For Lotto receptionist Lauren Hinshelwood, it's always easy to pick a first division winner from the moment they tumble out of the elevator at Lotto's Newmarket headquarters.
Hinshelwood says this is because winners always come into Lotto headquarters a bit nervous and apprehensive.
**READ MORE:
* Canterbury Lotto player scoops $5 million Powerball prize
* Lucky Auckland lotto winner comes away with $6.3m win
* Behind-the-scenes look at lives of Lotto millionaires**
Except for the one day when there were ten winners, all at the same time. A work syndicate had hit the 30 million jackpot, and they were screaming before they even got through the front door, she says.
Hinshelwood reckons she has the most interesting receptionist job in Auckland seeing as in her year of working at Lotto she's already met over 100 winners.
A typical week usually sees a Thursday and a Monday busy with winners from the previous night's draw, and Hinshelwood is the one that sits them down in the winner's room once they come in to cash their ticket.
Because the office isn't open on a Sunday, Saturday night winners have a tortuous wait for Monday.
'Most winners say they sleep with it under their pillows; they don't take their eyes off of it,' she says.
Some are even known to keep their winning tickets in other weird and wonderful places such as taping it to their bodies, hiding it in the back of a photo frame or even inside the cover of an obscure DVD.
Hinshelwood says she never thought she would be meeting winners when she applied for the job. So the first time she got to meet one, she was so excited – albeit a little jealous.
'Even if it means I'm not getting it (the prize money). It makes you feel good.'
THE WINNER
Since 1987, there have been 1,785 Lotto draws and more than 5,114 Kiwis have had to claim their first division winnings in person at Lotto NZ's head office, which has been based in Auckland since 2013.
One such winner is Auckland man Steve (name has been changed) who says he's had a big problem since he won $1 million this year: 'In what part of New Zealand do I buy my bach?' he says.
He describes his experience of winning the million a 'surreal, gob-smacking' moment.
He still chuckles when he thinks back to how uncanny it was.
He didn't even buy the winning Lotto ticket from March; it was a bonus ticket from the previous week.
He was going to put off getting the ticket until next week's draw but 'something told him' to get it for that night.
'I did my shopping, I went home, and I didn't think anything of it.'
A few days later he checked his ticket online, which is something he has never done before either.
His disbelief had him thinking the winning ticket he held in his hand must just be a design template on the website.
He asked his wife to check, but they still needed confirmation.
At the local Lotto store, the machine confirmed they were first division winners.
'We'll drive to Wellington to the Lotto offices – I thought. My wife said, 'nah nah don't be silly, we'll fly''.
Much to their great surprise, they learned the Lotto offices were in Remuera, a lot closer than Wellington, and they headed there that afternoon.
After sitting in the winner's room and filling out the form, the money was in the bank later on that day.
'It's almost like you're half drunk and things aren't what they seem.'
To date, the largest Powerball prize ever won was a massive $44 million jackpot that a young family from Auckland claimed in November 2016.
THE BALL DROP
The room where the Lotto numbers are announced is a large cave-like studio in Auckland's TVNZ building in the heart of the CBD. The studio is mostly dark other than the lightly lit staging area itself.
The room is draped in heavy curtains that have built-in Christmas tree-like lights, which when illuminated makes the backdrop look like stars on a night's sky.
While the studio is a lot larger than it appears on the screen, the Lotto balls are surprisingly small – only slightly larger than a golf ball.
Touching of the balls in any capacity is forbidden, bar for one approved person, in case anyone tampers with them.
Presenter Sonia Gray has been doing the job for over ten years.
Despite never having won the lotto herself, people have come to know her as 'the lotto lady', and sometimes rub her arm for luck.
Gray says that in all her years of recording the numbers, they've never been close to having a blunder on air.
This is probably to do with the pre-rehearsal, and a rehearsal that precedes the live drop. The whole operation is slick and faultless, exceptionally fine-tuned after 31 years.
Only on one night has she ever come close to thinking she was going to win.
'The first ball that dropped was mine, then the second, then the third. But that was it', she laughs.
'I know winning can happen and I think about it a lot.'
Like most lotto winners, she reckons she would make sure she double, tripled, quadruple checked before celebrating. She certainly wouldn't just celebrate in front of the camera.
'No, I wouldn't tell anyone if I'd won, maybe I already have,' she says.
THE JOB JACKPOT
The winner's room in the Lotto building exudes excitement and celebration befitting of a room where people have the best days of their life.
Wall decorations that spell the word 'Yay' hang on the far wall, behind tables of champagne, chocolate, tissues.
Extra champagne bottles chill in a corner fridge too – just in case.
Oddly, the champagne isn't drunk as often as you would think. Except for those really big winners.
'Our 30 million winners drink champagne in the morning,' head of communications Kirsten Robinson says.
Robinson is the person that organises the money for winners, by getting them to fill out a form with their details.
She also helps them get their heads around their winnings. A book is handed out to all winners, which is filled with advice on how to manage large amounts of money.
It's always finding a balance between 'responsible' and 'fun', she says.
Once winners are in the room, prize money is confirmed to the cent, and one form is filled out. That's it.
It's quite quick – surprisingly so – the money lands that night, she says.
'Often with our larger winners, they stay up overnight to check when the money goes in. Then they see all those zeros in their bank account.'
Despite the chance of winning Lotto First Division a 1 in 3.8 million chance, there is positive news: Lotto does not discriminate between young or old, rich or poor.
Although it's not just all about changing lives for individual people, Robinson says.
Lotto raises money for Kiwi families; you'd be hard pressed to find a community in New Zealand that hasn't been touched by Lotto NZ funding, she says.
More than $4.3 billion of lottery funding has been handed out to Kiwi communities all over the country since 1987.
If it's not changing a winner's life, it's about seeing positive things happen in Kiwi communities, which means heading to work every week is definitely never a case of: 'Oh goodness, I have to go to the office again.'
However, it's the opposite when Robinson sees the jackpot was won on a Saturday night as she knows she'll have an exciting and busy Monday morning
'It's a really special place to work, when you are changing lives and people,' she says.
It's hitting the job jackpot – really, she says.
'Even when you think you are coming into a normal day at work, chances are something interesting is going to happen. There is never a standard day.'
LIFE CHANGING
Six months on from his win and Steve still hasn't managed to buy his bach. He says it's become quite a logistical issue, but he'll get there.
Steve and his wife still work, and they are putting off upgrading the boat until summer.
Ironically, he'd just upgraded both his cars – so he didn't need to do that.
Winning a million dollars has changed his life in other ways too. It has cemented his wish to retire at 60 and has taken the pressure off, well, everything, he says.
'Everything is covered. If we want to go on holiday it's covered,' he says.