Big Wednesday gets even bigger with $20m jackpot

If the $20m Big Wednesday jackpot is struck tonight, the prize is likely to go to one winner. Photo / Supplied

The largest prize in New Zealand lottery history could be won tonight as Big Wednesday has jackpotted to $20 million.

After a 20-week run of jackpots, New Zealand Lotteries is being flooded with new registrations for its website mylotto.co.nz.

New Zealand Lotteries spokeswoman Karen Jones said "We normally sell about 500,000 tickets a week, but last week we sold 1.3 million tickets. Lots of people are motivated by big jackpots, only buying when the prize is high."

She said it was rare for Big Wednesday First Division prizes to be shared, so it was likely that one person would take the entire pot tonight.

The largest combined Lotto Powerball prize won to date was $19,054,243 for the April 5, 2008, draw.

A Powerball jackpot of $30 million was won last year, but was divided between five players.

New Zealand Lotteries has calculated that $20 million would buy about sixty average-priced houses or, if placed in the bank, could earn about $30,000 a week in interest.

* Lucky numbers

Big Wednesday jackpot: $20m + $1.7m in prizes.

Chance of winning: 1 in 16,290,120 per line played.

Highest possible jackpot: $30 million.

Most commonly pulled numbers: 44, 10, 16.

* mylotto.co.nz