The largest single cash prize in Lotto history was probably won on a Lucky Dip, bought by a person who failed to realise the win until the morning after Saturday night's draw.
The record $15.2 million Lotto Powerball jackpot prize was claimed yesterday by an Auckland person who wants to
remain anonymous.
"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 winner said.
"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.
"I then went to the NZ Lotteries website and got a second confirmation of the win."
New Zealand Lotteries Commission chief executive Trevor Hall said the winning ticket was probably a Lucky Dip.
If the winner had used their own numbers, they would probably have registered the win when they wrote down the Lotto numbers on Saturday night.
The commission does not ask winners what kind of ticket they buy.
The winner advised the commission in Wellington yesterday, rather than going to Amigos Paper Power & Lotto in Mt Roskill, where the ticket was bought.
As with other big winners, the commission advised the Auckland person to have a cooling-off period to keep from making rash purchases.
The $15,233,068 prize is the biggest ever paid out by NZ Lotteries on a single ticket.
The prize is made up of $14.5 million from Powerball Division One and $733,068 from winning the Division One Lotto prize.
This is the first time a prize of more than $10 million has been claimed on a ticket sold in Auckland.
The previous highest payout in Auckland was $6.8 million won by a ticket bought at Mairangi Bay Dairy & Lotto in January 2002.
Until now, the largest Powerball prize won by an individual ticket was $14,763,254, in April last year from a ticket bought in Kawerau.
Mr Hall said other big wins included $12,053,517 in June at Napier, $11,482,824 in November 2002 at Hokitika and $9,970,845 in the 2004 Christmas Day draw on a ticket bought in Wellington.
