Lotto winner scoops $12m

It's gone! Somewhere in Napier someone is celebrating today after beating the 1-in-30 million odds to win the second-biggest Lotto Powerball jackpot in history.

The winner collected a total of $12,053,517, made up of the Powerball jackpot of $11,564,725, first division Lotto of $488,760 and fifth division Lotto of $32.

The lucky ticket was bought at the Andrew Spence Pharmacy in Napier, and if it is anything like previous big wins, speculation fever will now grip the city until the lucky winner fronts up.

Last night's win is not quite the largest prize ever won by an individual ticket - that was $14,763,254, won in April last year from a ticket sold in Kawerau.

Lotteries Commissionspokeswoman Helen Morgan-Banda said it was incredibly exciting when large amounts were won, and she was always struck by how the big winners always wanted to spend the money on their families.

But what to do with all that money? Some, like Lotto winner Robert Coates from Oamaru, have taken the sensible route. He won $100,000 on the Lotto winning wheel last September but has squirrelled his money away until he decides what he wants to do with it.

"Once I found out I had a chance, I decided if I won any money I would stick it in a bank for a year and think about it for a while, and that is what I have done," he said.

Perhaps the best advice for any Lotto winner is look after that ticket. It was a close run for Mr Coates to collect his winnings. When he saw someone from Oamaru had the winning wheel ticket, he decided to hold on tight to his, as the previous week his uncle had burned them all before he had a chance to check them.
He hopes lightning will strike twice and buys weekly Lotto tickets, especially as he thinks he is on the winning side of the investment.

Auckland financial planner Lisa Dudson agrees with Mr Coates' plan. She said research showed that most lottery winners had frittered away their winnings within two years.

Her advice is to get in touch with a financial planner as soon as possible to work out the best plan for not only keeping those winnings, but growing them into something much bigger.

"That plan might be to pay off existing debt, buy a few toys, allocate some money for some fun stuff, and then put a large chunk into a properly constructed portfolio of investments that can provide an income to live off."

Caution is the key, she said, as lottery winners can sometimes be lured into dodgy investments.

"Because they have a lot of money, people tend to find them and tempt them with investments that offer a high return. But because they don't know what they are doing, some have lost a lot."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY