$15.2 million Lotto winner comes forward

An Auckland person has come forward to claim the record $15.2 million Lotto Powerball prize after taking some time to check their winning ticket.

The person wishes to remain anonymous after their big Saturday win but has made some comments through the Lotteries Commission.

"I came home and checked Teletext and saw that there was a single winner, and thought 'that's a lot of money for one winning ticket'. I hoped the ticket was owned by a number of people," the person said today.

"I then went to bed oblivious to my windfall. I slept well and in the morning I was stunned when I checked the numbers that I had written down the night before."

The $15,233,068 prize is the biggest ever paid out on a single ticket, made up of $14,500,000 from Powerball Division One and $733,068 from being a division one Lotto winner.

Lotteries Commission chief executive Trevor Hall said though the winner wanted to remain anonymous, they planned to "do some good with the winnings".

The ticket was bought from Amigo's Paper Power and Lotto in Mt Roskill, Auckland.

The previous biggest win was $14,763,254, won in April last year from a ticket bought in Kawerau.

- NZPA