A lucky Lotto player has struck the big time, winning $12.3 million from Powerball.
Strike Four was also won, netting one player $700,000.
Two other tickets won the Lotto Division One, each worth $333,333.
Tonight’s winning numbers were 1, 5, 6, 28, 29 and 40. The bonus ball was 17 and the Powerball was 1. Strike was 28, 40, 5 and 29.
The big jackpot marks the third Lotto multimillionaire of the year after a Hawke’s Bay player won $8.3m in February and a Cantabrian took home $17m in January.
The last big win of 2023 saw an Auckland couple win $12.2 m in December.
They vowed to spend their win on “sensible stuff”.
“It wasn’t until we got the call from Lotto NZ that the reality started to sink in,” the woman said.
“We’re still thinking about what we’d like to do with the money, but we’re pretty sensible people.”
“Sensible, mundane stuff” topped their wishlist, the woman said, such as investing in a home for the future.
“It’s amazing to know we have so many options now,” she said.
“We can’t wait to support our family and spend time on the things that really matter.”
In the middle of 2023, a Christchurch couple who won one of the largest Lotto draws in recent history kept their ticket hidden in the sock drawer for days while they worked out what they would do with their winnings.
The couple, who wished to remain anonymous, said they were overwhelmed by the magnitude of the win and needed time to process it before coming forward.
The mouthwatering $33.5m win was eventually claimed after the numbers were announced on June 28.
The woman said she had been busy doing chores on the night of the draw and so it wasn’t until quite late that she decided to check her ticket.
“I had been busy doing a few things, and then I thought I may as well check my ticket before I went to bed,” she said.
“I looked the numbers up online and started checking each line of the ticket.
“The winning line was right at the bottom, and the numbers just sort of jumped out at me - all of them,” she said.
“I couldn’t breathe at first - I was almost hyperventilating.”
The couple said they had kept their yellow ticket hidden in a sock drawer.
The 19-year-old disappeared without her wallet or mobile phone.