Two Aucklanders became $25 million richer overnight – who are they?
Sunday, 1 March 2020
Two Aucklanders are $25 million richer – but are yet to come forward to claim their prize.
Lotto was the big talking point in the community where one winning ticket was sold, Countdown Manukau City Mall.
Manukau residents Kushnel Swamy and Ema Tua checked their tickets last night and insisted they weren't jackpot winners.
'We bought one ticket each. We had already planned it out,' Swamy said.
**READ MORE:
* Lotto: Two winners in Auckland split record $50 million Powerball
* Powerball jackpots to $50m after no big winner in $42m draw
*** Here's what the big Lotto winners need to do next
If he won $25m, he would retire in Fiji, spend $5m on a house and spend most of the rest.
He would probably not give away money to big charities 'because it all goes to the executives', he said.
Instead, he said many underprivileged children in Fiji were deserving.
He said if a local person won the $25m and helped their family out, the local economy would receive a boost.
Rahul Wagh was buying a ticket on Sunday from the nearby Lotto shop next to Countdown in the Westfield Manukau City mall.
He said he bought a ticket 'because all the people' were also buying tickets and talking about Lotto.
'It's too much,' he said of the $25 million prize.
Wagh said the person who won that much 'first of all will be busy counting all the money'.
Lotto spokeswoman Marie Winfield said the players had not come forward by 4pm Sunday, but they expected to hear from them in the next day or two.
'With a big draw like this and being quite high profile it's likely people will check their tickets,' she said.
Finding out about a win was a big moment, so Lotto preferred to wait and let winners come to them.
Winfield said she 'fully expected' that to happen soon.
The winning tickets were sold at Countdown Manukau City Mall in Auckland and on MyLotto to a player from Auckland.
Countdown spokeswoman Kate Porter said while they didn't have exact numbers for how many tickets had been sold at the Manukau store, 'it was pretty busy out there'.
'We're absolutely thrilled that one of our customers has been so lucky with last night's Lotto.
'We hope they are celebrating with their friends and family today,' she said.
The $50 million is the largest Powerball jackpot in history.
Previously, $44 million was the record. That prize was won by a young couple on the Hibiscus Coast in 2016.
The record prize was put up for grabs after $42m rolled over on Wednesday night, as no-one had a winning ticket.
Saturday night's winning numbers were 4, 18, 27, 25, 32 and 28. Bonus ball was 37 and the power ball was 3.
The night's Lotto draw was a Must Be Won draw, which meant if no single ticket won Powerball First Division, the prize pool would roll down to the next highest division and the money would be shared amongst those winners.
It's the first time Powerball has reached a Must Be Won draw since November 2016.