Lotto's mammoth $50m jackpot must be won this Saturday - here's why
Thursday, 27 February 2020
The country's biggest ever Lotto Powerball Jackpot worth $50 million will be won on Saturday night.
If a single player is lucky enough to win the $50m jackpot, they'll make history as the largest prize winner ever.
The mammoth prize features in a 'must be won draw' - which means at least one person will be seeing money flood their bank account this weekend.
But if there are no first division winners, the entire jackpot rolls down to the next division - meaning there could be multiple winners on the night.
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These winners could be from the second or third division. If there is more than one winner in that prize division, then the prize is shared evenly among all of the winners.
HISTORY OF MUST BE WON
Saturday night's draw will be the sixth time in history that Powerball has reached a must be won draw with a jackpot of over $30m.
In three of the five draws, the Powerball jackpot was split by multiple players.
The first must be won draw over $30m was in October 2008 when five players – from Auckland (2), Wellington (2) and Reefton (1) – split the $30.5m jackpot and took home $6.1m each, a statement from Lotto said.
Three years later, a player from Dannevirke and another from Hamilton split a $35.2m jackpot and banked $17.4m each.
In September 2013 one player from Auckland took home $33m - which is currently the second-largest win in Powerball history.
In 2016 there were two must be won draws. In July, a player from Auckland, a player from Hamilton and a player from Dunedin split the $40m jackpot and scored $13.3m each.
In November, an Auckland couple won the largest prize in Powerball history which was $44m.
'With a Powerball that must be won this Saturday, it's guaranteed that one or more lucky Kiwis are going to win big – even if the prize is split,' Lotto's Marie Winfield said.
'Whether it's one lucky winner or more, we're so excited that we'll be making more New Zealanders millionaires this week.'
Winfield said interest in the record Powerball jackpot is phenomenal.
'The $50 million must be won Powerball draw has captured the imagination of Kiwis up and down the country.
'We are experiencing unprecedented demand both in store and online, so we are encouraging all Lotto players to get in early to purchase their ticket,' Winfield said.
It has been four years since Lotto NZ held a must be won draw when that $44m prize was up for grabs.
In November 2016, a man from the Hibiscus Coast was on a smoko break at work when he checked his lucky ticket. He later claimed the largest prize in the Lotto NZ record books.
'As soon as I saw I had all the numbers on one line I just yelled 'holy s…' - my boss thought I'd chopped my arm off with a saw,' said the winner.