Lotto Powerball: One lucky Invercargill player $17.25 million richer after winning jackpot

One lucky Lotto Powerball winner will be celebrating tonight after striking it big as New Zealand’s latest multi-millionaire.

The player claims a whopping $17,250,000 after winning First Division and Powerball. They purchased their ticket through the MyLotto app and live in Invercargill.

Tonight’s numbers were: 23, 15, 40, 36, 29 and 3. The bonus ball was 4 and the powerball was 7.

After no one struck it last week, tonight’s Lotto Powerball draw skyrocketed to offer more than $17m.

Following the draw, three additional Lotto players will also be celebrating after each winning $250,000 with Lotto First Division.

The winning tickets were sold to an Auckland player on MyLotto and at Flaxmere Pharmacy in Hastings and Woodham Foodmarket in Christchurch.

Tonight’s big winner becomes the seventh Powerball multi-millionaire of 2023, and their victory comes only a few weeks after a couple from Porirua claimed a $7m Powerball prize.

Last month a punter won $15.5m in a must-be-won draw, from which half the value of ticket sales will go towards helping people living in regions devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle.

That winning ticket was purchased by a MyLotto player from Canterbury.

Another winner, a man from Kaitāia who won $18,611, plans to save his winnings and ultimately “buy a new home for my whānau”.

“I’m so excited for the future. I’m going to remember this day forever,” he said.

His win — one of 16 nationwide to come away with nearly $20,000 from Lotto Second Division drawn on Saturday, April 15 — was outdone by only three players who also won Powerball in that draw for total wins of $25,196, one of them from Whangārei.

The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, said he plays Lotto “now and then”.

He had bought his ticket on MyLotto and didn’t check it until Friday, April 21 - nearly a week after the draw.