Words: Luke Kirkness
Design and graphics: Paul Slater
Graphics: Nathan Meek
All that stands between you and becoming New Zealand’s latest millionaire is a 20c coin, except, of course, it’s not quite that easy.
The coin is tossed four times - to decide which Lotto machine, which Powerball machine, which Lotto ball set, and which Powerball ball set is used.
There are two of each machine and ball sets, with the side of the coin which lands on the back of the Audit New Zealand scrutineer’s hand deciding which is used.
Specific settings, which are kept top secret and couldn’t be recorded, are checked on the back of each machine as they are set up for the draw.
Such are the mechanics behind the set as the draw is held in the depths of TVNZ’s studios on Victoria St West, Auckland. Hours of preparation goes into this two and a half minutes of television.
There are two rehearsals and a third full dress rehearsal before the live draw.
The scrutineer, along with a representative from Lotto, watches over to make sure no corner is cut.
The first rehearsals are completed with practice balls which are the same size as the balls used for the dress rehearsal and live draw.
Another Lotto NZ representative loads both the Lotto and Powerball machines with the balls - wearing gloves on to make sure no oil gets on them.
Every 10 draws the balls are washed and measured to make sure they’re the correct weight and if just one ball is off the entire set is destroyed.
The 20c coin is kept secure in a locked cupboard onsite with the draw laptop which uploads the drawn numbers to Lotto NZ’s gaming system.
The draw machines and balls are kept in a storage unit, with two keys required to unlock it which are handed to the scrutineer and a Lotto representative by security.
After the coin toss, both machines go through a robust draw cycle. In the rare instance there are issues during testing, the machine is swapped for the other, which is also tested.
In 2014, a fault saw the Powerball machine fail to spit out the winning ball on live television.
On a Wednesday night draw, the first rehearsal must take place at 7.28pm.
At precisely 7.34pm the studio receives a call from Lotto NZ’s head office in Newmarket to ensure all terminals have closed.
Then comes rehearsal number two - before the dress rehearsal with the proper balls.
Some crew members have been unfortunate enough to watch their own Lotto numbers come up during the rehearsals. One cameraman tells the Herald he never chooses his own numbers for fear of seeing them in rehearsal.
Lotto NZ’s chief executive Chris Lyman agrees: he buys a dip.
Chris Lyman. Photo / Tracey Grant
Chris Lyman. Photo / Tracey Grant
“I always worry about playing my own numbers and I don’t play and they come up. That’s probably my superstition: Be random.”
More than $4.3 billion in prizes has been claimed by winners of Lotto first division, Powerball and Strike games since 1987.
That’s slightly less than the budget for the country’s largest construction project, Auckland’s City Rail Link, which started out at $4.4b.
Since the first draw, Lotto NZ has made a total of 964 people millionaires and there have been 196 Powerball first division winners since the game began in 2001.
If you bought a $7 ticket, which is worth 10 Lotto lines, your odds of winning first division and taking home $1 million are 1 in 383,838.
Gambling website Choice Not Chance offers a useful analogy about stars visible in the Southern Hemisphere. There are 4548 of them. Winning Lotto’s First Division is the equivalent of picking the "winning star" correctly over the next 84 nights.
Your chances of winning Powerball aren’t flash either - at one in 38 million it’s the same as picking the correct star over the next 843 nights.
But you’ve got to be in it to win it, and sometimes you do, as one former winner told the Herald.
“They say you’re more likely to get hit by lightning; thankfully I didn’t,” the man, who wished not to be named, said last month.
The Porirua man bagged an incredible $15m in 2015. In a move to restore faith in humanity, he held true to a pact he made 10 years earlier and donated $7.5m to a friend.
“I’m going to tell my mate that $7.5m is his. But I’m keeping that extra $250,000 – I think that’s fair,” he said at the time.
“I can’t wait to tell him – we want to share the joy with this win and we know that this will absolutely make his family’s Christmas, as well as ours.”
Prior to the big win, the man’s friend had been going through some “very tough times” after having a stroke and even a heart attack.
The pair met over dinner a couple of days after the win where the winner shared the great news over the most expensive bottle of wine on the menu.
“I think the staff didn’t know whether to call security or come and join us because we were in the restaurant hugging and crying. It was really, really emotional,” he said.
The man won using his own lucky numbers - some of which include birthdays - and he still uses the same numbers to this day.
After the win he sought good financial advice about what to do for the long-term but also how to enjoy the win at the time.
He travelled to parts of the world he had never been to before and even forked out for a new set of wheels.
“I had always wanted a certain type of vehicle and I was able to buy that, it was one of the first things I bought too,” the winner said.
The man says having a good support network around him was hugely beneficial but seeking financial advice was the best thing he ever did.
Now without debts, the man says life has changed for his family forever, but the good fortune also enables him to serve others.
Growing up in Porirua, the man said, his family didn’t have a lot other than love, “which is all you need”.
But his upbringing inspired him to help others and that is what he does.
“That money has enabled me to help others and actually do what I love, which is helping others within the community I grew up in,” he said.
“The ability to help that community, to give kids some hope, to see them really enjoy what we do and what they do is giving them the opportunity to dream big.
“It’s just a blessing and a gift for me to see that. I want them to experience, to widen their vision of where it is now.”
The man bought the ticket at the Eastside Four Square and Lotto in December 2015.
Checking the numbers online after the draw, he knew instantly they had won something big.
“We were sitting on the couch, when he started making funny noises and I thought something was wrong,” his daughter said after the win.
“Then he told me to get his wallet and we checked his Lotto ticket together.
“We all just looked at each other and then started screaming and jumping and hugging each other – a bit of a winning dance. We were so excited.”
In 2009, three generations of one Masterton family split a $36.m jackpot.
Margaret Heany, her two daughters and a granddaughter split the $12 ticket, which was named “Irish Luck” in honour of the family’s Irish roots.
Heany, who died in 2010, and her family donated some of their winnings to the Wairarapa District Health Board to spend on a new ambulance.
"Me and John used the ambulance a lot, it's time to put something back into the service," she said in December 2009.
Meanwhile, a Tauranga man who won $10.3m in 2017 after winning Powerball had spent $4.3m within six months.
Lotto winner Lou Te Keeti. Photo / Andrew Warnere
Lotto winner Lou Te Keeti. Photo / Andrew Warnere
Lou Te Keeti found a new “lease of life” buying racehorses and a Mercedes, gave money away to charity and even upgraded a cemetery.
All Powerball winners are invited to visit Lotto NZ’s Auckland office to claim their prize in the winner’s room – it’s all part of the winning experience. As well as officially claiming their prize, this gives big winners the chance to celebrate their win and receive tips, tricks and advice from Lotto NZ about adjusting to life as a Powerball winner.
Lotto attracts its fair share of criticism from anti-gambling groups – though it isn’t considered one of the more harmful forms by the Problem Gambling Foundation.
Pokies, for example, are continuous - but you can only check the Lotto ticket once.
However, if people aren’t buying tickets out of discretionary income that’s an issue, the foundation’s Andree Froude said.
“Buying Lotto tickets rather than spending the money on food, healthcare and children is harmful,” she says.
Proactive messaging like “you’ve got to be in to win” also presents issues but Lotto was working to improve harm-messaging.
“Lotto [is] working to improve [these] messages and we encourage this work, especially at the retail end where the seller has the opportunity to look for signs of harm.”
All of the profits from Lotto NZ are transferred through the Lottery Grants Board to more than 3000 causes and charities.
Coastguard. Photo / Supplied
Coastguard. Photo / Supplied
Over the past 12 years, Coastguard has received more than $24.5m through the board. Last year, the service received $2.5m, or 11 per cent of their funding.
“The funding we get from Lotto goes directly back to those communities to save lives,” Coastguard’s head of funding Jo Cowie says.
“Over time, I would stress that the funding we have received from Lotto has absolutely provided a financial lifeline for this volunteer organisation.”
In the year ending June 30, 2019, 22c was transferred to the grants board from every $1 of combined sales made.
A total of $261m in profit was transferred to the board for the year ending 2018/2019.
The majority of each $1 made - 55c - is put back into Lotto NZ prizes, with 11c lost to tax, 6c to the retailer commission and the remaining 6c to operating costs.
Lotto’s first presenter Doug Harvey says the launch was “bigger than big”.
Ann Wilson, Billy T James and Doug Harvey. Photo / Supplied
Ann Wilson, Billy T James and Doug Harvey. Photo / Supplied
“The queues for the first few years, definitely on the Saturdays, they would stretch for blocks down streets in the suburbs to go and get tickets,” he said.
“People would queue for two to three hours to get tickets, it was pandemonium.
“I was the poster boy for the whole thing … I used to go to the cricket at Eden Park and kids would spot me and get an autograph.”
Between presenting and his day job, it became quite difficult to manage so he left the gig after about six years.
When he was the host, he would buy a ticket each week and put it close to the Lotto machine, hoping it would bring him some luck. It didn’t.
After spending more than 20 years working in Australia, Harvey and his partner moved back to New Zealand a few years ago and he sometimes buys tickets now.
“If I’m near a dairy I’ll pick up a ticket,” he said. “I just get a lucky dip, I don’t have lucky numbers or anything.”
Jordan Vandermade first started presenting Lotto nine years ago. He was born in the year the first draw was held, 1987.
“My job is actually changing Kiwis’ lives, like actually, and it’s really cool to be playing a really small part in that,” he said before Wednesday’s 1999th draw.
“And, to finally answer it, no I can’t call your numbers but I’ll try.” The presenters and crew get this joke often, he says.
Sonia Gray has been with Lotto NZ for 15 years, first starting out on Big Wednesday.
She says the Lotto NZ team is a whānau and she’s loved every minute of her time on the programme.
“I love the big draws, when there’s a lot of money on the line,” Gray says. “Jordie and I get to do them together, which is cool.
“The great thing about a jackpot is that it’s got to go, so you know at the end of that night there’s going to be one or more multi-millionaires.”
Gray seems to think there’s a pact between the two presenters if either of them win a massive jackpot, but Vandermade doesn’t seem so sure.
Gray says her newfound fortune would be spent going to the world’s greatest sports events; Vandermade is eyeing up ownership of the Blues rugby team.
The first Lotto draw was held on August 1, 1987, for a prize pool of $1,028,024 with Division One worth $359,808 which was shared four ways.
Tickets for the inaugural draw, hosted by Harvey and Ann Wilson, went on sale from July 22, and the first numbers drawn were:
The first bogus Lotto claim occurred in October 1987 when a counterfeit was sent to the Lotto head office in Wellington in an attempt to claim a $1 million prize.
Less than a year later, in August 1988, a Christchurch student in his early 20’s became the first millionaire - after borrowing $5 for a ticket.
The biggest ever prize won by an individual ticket is $44m and was bought by a couple from the Hibiscus Coast in November 2016. More than 2.3 million tickets were sold for the must be won Powerball draw.
The jackpot has swelled to $50m, the highest it can reach, twice this year but both times more than one ticket holder has shared the same numbers.
Two players both received $25.1m in March, while 10 players received $5m each in August.
On Wednesday this week, an Auckland player who brought a ticket from Pacific Superette won $8.3m with Powerball. It was the fifth time Powerball was struck in September.
Tonight’s 2000th draw has a $5m jackpot – but Lotto is marking the birthday with a giveaway of five lots of $2000 cash prizes.
All that money and it begins with just a 20c coin.
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