Lotto: Te Kūiti woman scoops $1 million after mistakenly doubling up numbers
Tuesday, 14 July 2020
An oversight on one of her Lotto tickets has left one Te Kūiti woman one million dollars richer.
The anonymous woman, who was playing two Lotto Combo 8 tickets for the July 4 draw, didn’t realise she had entered the same numbers on one line of her ticket twice.
The mistake landed her with an extra $500,000. She also won another half a million on her other ticket.
It meant the woman claimed two first division prizes, and six second division prizes in one night – taking her prize money to $1,095,742 overall.
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The woman forgot to watch the draw that night, and it wasn’t for a few days that she checked the tickets.
She logged in online and her first ticket popped up with the winning tune, but she initially couldn't see the amount.
“That ticket had a few winning lines, so I was scrolling down the ticket trying to find the amount – then I saw it at the top – $579,481.
“I couldn’t believe it – I wasn’t sure I was reading it right but there were lots of numbers and commas!
“Then the second ticket came up and I saw I had won again. It was amazing!”
Results showed there were two First Division winners for the draw – both her.
The woman called her children to share the good news, and to check she wasn’t seeing things.
“I told them I thought I had won twice – they didn’t quite believe me until I showed them the tickets.”
The woman has no firm plans about how she’ll spend her million, but wants to pay off her mortgage first.
“I’d also like to book a holiday when we can and I might even update my car, but I’m not 100 per cent sure yet.”
Lotto head of communications, Marie Winfield, said the Te Kūiti win was the second time recently a single winner had scooped a bunch of wins on one night.
“Waikato appeared to be the luckiest region in New Zealand on 4 July when the region scooped two Lotto first division wins and six second division wins – all on the same night.
“We had no idea that all of the prizes would be claimed by one very lucky winner.”
It comes after a Patea resident won four first division prizes on a single ticket in June, having played the same six numbers on her ticket four times, Winfield said.