Lotto's 2019 winners reveal their secrets to success
Monday, 30 December 2019
A Taupō man who took home a $250,000 Lotto jackpot this year has let slip his secret to success.
The man, whose identity remains a mystery, believes hiding the tickets in special spots imbues them with extra luck.
'Every now and then I like to hide my tickets in weird places around the house to give it a bit of extra luck, so when I saw my wedding suit blazer, I thought 'why not give it a go',' he said.
It seems there is method to his madness.
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One night, he arose from his slumber and remembered he had a ticket to check in the blazer.
That ticket ended up yielding a cool $250,000.
His was one of several strange rituals revealed in a year ending press release from Lotto.
It said the lottery had its biggest winning year ever in 2019, with $571 million in prizes handed out across Powerball, Lotto and Strike.
However, that huge tally did not include the newest $17.1m Powerball winner, who had yet to claim their prize.
An Auckland man who won $1m had a similarly bizarre method of making his tickets more auspicious.
'I like to save up my Lotto tickets, and when I have a bit of downtime, check them all at once – it builds the suspense that way,' he said.
'I can't believe we had no idea that we were sitting on a million dollar ticket this whole time!'
Other winners managed to snag huge jackpots with just minutes to spare.
A south Auckland couple realised with horror they had yet to get a ticket just before the draw.
'My husband turned to me at 7.22pm and said 'we didn't get a Lotto ticket! You better run down to the dairy and pick one up', but I knew there wouldn't be enough time – so I logged onto MyLotto instead,' the winner said
'I hadn't bought a ticket on MyLotto in quite a while, so needed to find my card and top up my account – I was racing all over the house! I ended up clicking 'buy' with two minutes to spare.'
That lucky couple ended up taking home part of a $38m Powerball jackpot – a life-changing $19.1m.
Some players also had huge success buying tickets on a whim.
One Wellington woman headed to the food court with her husband for some sushi.
While her 'hangry' husband queued, the woman nabbed a couple of Instant Kiwi Cash Extravaganza tickets for them to scratch over lunch.
'When I saw I had matched number 35 on the third line, I didn't think much of it,' she said.
'I kept scratching the rest of ticket to see if I had matched any others, then I scratched the prize panel and there was a very large number with a lot of zeros starring back at me – I nearly choked on my lunch!'
They rushed back to the Lotto shop before finishing their meal and confirmed a $1 million prize was theirs.
BY THE NUMBERS: LOTTO IN 2019
- Biggest winning year ever with $571 million in prizes paid out across Lotto Family. The second highest year was 2017 with $542.8m.
- 915 millionaires to date since 1987.
- 40 millionaires, 16 Powerball winners in 2019 (all Lotto NZ games).
- Of the 40 millionaires made in 2019, the average prize was $5.8m.
- 50 per cent of Powerball players won on MyLotto, 50 per cent won on tickets bought in store
- 58 per cent of winners scooped the big one with a Dip.
- 53 per cent of winners said they'd keep working after their win.
- 71 per cent of winners helped family and friends with their winnings.
- 53 per cent of winners indulged in some international travel.
- 45 per cent of winners bought a new house.
- Biggest win was the $22.3m ticket sold at Inglewood Bookcentre in Taranaki on January 2.
- Most common 'store' to win big was MyLotto, with eight multimillion-dollar wins.