Big jackpots keep Lotto booming — $405 million profit smashes forecast
Wednesday, 12 November 2025
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A lucky streak of big jackpots and better-than-expected cost control has seen Lotto New Zealand dodge the economic downturn, smashing its sales and profit forecasts for the second year running.
While slightly down on last year’s records, Lotto’s sales in the year to June were 10% ahead of budget at $1.63 billion and its profit was 22% above target at $405 million, the state-owned lottery company said.
Chief executive Jason Delamore said the early signs were also looking positive for another healthy year, thanks to today’s $45m Powerball draw.
Big jackpots, and especially “must-win” draws which today’s draw hasn’t quite reached, persuade large numbers of people who don’t usually play Lotto to splash out on a ticket, and have a big effect on its financial performance.
“What swings the year is really the run of jackpots,” Delamore said.
Lotto plans to shore-up the odds for more crowd-drawing Powerball jackpots next year by reducing the chances of individual tickets winning the top prize.
Instead of continuing to fall in the range of between one and 10, Delamore appeared to confirm to The Post that between two and four extra numbers could be added to Powerball, though it’s a decision for the minister.
If Powerball numbers went up to 12, that would reduce the chance of an eight-line $12 Power Dip ticket winning the first division prize from one in 4.8 million to less than one in 5.7 million. If the Powerball range went up to 14, that would cut those odds to one in 6.7 million.
Rather than focus on the reduced chance of an individual ticket winning Powerball, Lotto is describing the proposed “matrix change” as a way of cancelling out the longer-term effect of rising ticket sales and maintaining the chance of the top prize being won by someone each week.
“If you have a growing population, or an increased number of people participating in the game, and you're not changing the game at all, the chances of getting to a higher jackpot reduces, and it starts to underperform,” Delamore said.
The distribution of prizes between winning divisions could also be rejigged, he said, with details likely to be confirmed by the end of March.
“What we are aiming for is a game pattern that gets us to more consistently delivering more than $400m in profits back to community.”
The upshot of the consecutive bumper years just passed is the Lottery Grants Board has received $829m in total from Lotto’s profits to dish out to community groups over the two-year period, $155m more than expected and nearly $94m more than it received over the previous two years.
The state-owned lotteries company is warning it faces a “different competitive environment” ahead as the Government seeks to change the law and allow up to 15 online casinos to legally operate and advertise in the country.
The Online Casino Gambling Bill, which would effectively bring online casino gambling more into the mainstream, is currently being considered by a select committee, ahead of a conscience vote in Parliament.
Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden has attempted to shore up support for the legislation — which has faced vocal opposition from dozens of community groups and organisations that treats gambling addictions — by suggesting a new requirement for licensed online casinos to return 4% of their net profits to the community.
However, that hasn’t satisfied all critics.
Delamore said the international experience was that national lotteries tended to hold steady in the face of competition from regulated online casinos, but he acknowledged sales of Lotto’s Instant Kiwi products, which contributed $194m or 12% to Lotto’s sales in the year to June, could be adversely affected.
The gambling products were different, but “there is an area where there is overlap, for sure”, he said.
Lotto is also attempting to prepare for a tougher competitive environment by modernising its technology
In September, it replaced its core software system with a new platform, Symphony, supplied by United States company Scientific Games.
Delamore said the work, dubbed Project Edge, had come in under its budget of about $70m. Its latest annual operating expenses were about 10% under budget at $103m.
Up to now, the main changes customers would have seen from Project Edge would have been the new terminals in Lotto outlets and their Lotto, Powerball and Strike numbers being printed on a single ticket, he said.
But the software upgrade is paving the way for bigger changes towards the end of 2027 that Lotto promises will make it easier for punters to register, pay, play and check their results, and for it to introduce new gaming products.
People should be able to buy tickets using the likes of Apple Pay and new self-service kiosks in Lotto outlets would provide a “hybrid” experience, allowing people to buy a ticket online and still print out the familiar yellow ticket, he said.
“I’m bullish about how we’re gearing up for this competitive environment and for a world that's different. Having Symphony under our belt and now heading towards a revised web [interface] and app, we will be extremely relevant.”
In the year to June, 48% of Lotto sales were online, rather than in stores, making it a “digital leader” internationally, Delamore said. That was expected to increase to 60% of sales by June 2029.
Lotto might need to “rebalance the network, and work with our retailers as we move forward”, but thought they had a healthy future ahead of them, he said.
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