Lotto Powerball jackpot: $17 million up for grabs

Someone could be $17 million richer tonight.

Are you $17 million richer?

Tonight’s Lotto numbers for the big draw are 1, 27, 31, 22, 29, 21.

The bonus ball was 3 and the Powerball number was also 3.

There have been several chunky wins in the national lottery this year, most recently when someone in Wairoa - among large parts of Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti Gisborne devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle this year - won $10.3m.

The winner, who the Herald understands is a solo mum, told media in a statement through the New Zealand Lotteries Commission that it had been a year filled with challenges, so her family was thankful and “looking forward to the future”.

A Christchurch couple’s lives were also changed earlier this year when they won $33.5m in a late June draw.

The woman checked her ticket after an evening of doing chores, and quickly found herself struggling to breathe.

“My husband had already gone to bed so I woke him up and said, ‘Can you please check this for me? These numbers are dancing on the paper.

“‘Is it actually real?’”