Lotto’s $50 million prize to be split between seven winners
Saturday, 8 June 2024
The numbers are in for Lotto’s must-win $50 million Powerball draw and seven people are taking home a slice of the pie.
Saturday’s Lotto numbers are 22, 35, 10, 30, 21 and 37. The Bonus Ball is 5 and Powerball is 2.
There $50m prize has gone into a Powerball Rolldown, meaning seven people will instead take home $7.18m each.
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“This is going to be life-changing, and not only for the lucky winner themselves, as we know winning big has a huge ripple effect,” Lotto chief executive Jason Delamore said in a statement.
“Most of our big winners share their prize with others, including family, friends, communities, and charities. This means that the win makes a huge difference to more than just one person.”
Fourteen other players won $71,429 each in Lotto First Division, while one player nabbed $600k in Strike Four.
As expected, Lotto’s app and website were chocka with Kiwis keen to see if they have to show up to work on Monday, almost immediately after the 8pm draw.
The queue to log into Lotto was paused: “You’ll keep your place in the queue and we’ll update you when the queue resumes,” the website read.
“We’re letting people in as fast as we can, so the good news is, you probably won’t need to wait as long as it says!”
It is only the third time ever Powerball reached $50m. Had it been won by a single ticket, it would have been the biggest Lotto win in New Zealand ever.
Lotto counters across Aotearoa were pumping on Saturday in anticipation of the big draw, with some supermarkets using cones to keep queues in order.
The MyLotto app will open later than usual on Sunday at 10am, to handle the “extraordinarily high” volume of people checking to see if they have become an overnight multimillionaire.
If you’re the lucky punter who takes home the jackpot, a couple from the Hibiscus Coast who scored $44.06 million in 2016 - currently the largest Lotto prize ever - have some sagely advice: “Don’t have a heart attack. That’s the most important thing to remember.”
Despite odds of 38.3 million to one, Lotto say they expect two million tickets to be sold for the Powerball draw.
In a February 2020 Powerball draw for $50m, 2000 tickets were sold every minute in the afternoon before the numbers reveal.
Lucy Fullarton, Lotto’s head of corporate communications, thanked customers in advance for their patience.
“With so much excitement around the draw we want to ensure our players can enjoy the anticipation of the big win and have an opportunity to check their individual ticket before they hear in the news where the winning tickets were sold.”
The last $50m Powerball draw took place in August 2020, with $5m in winnings shared amongst 10 ticket holders.