On-air live Lotto Powerball mishap whisks away win for Auckland woman

An Auckland woman has missed out on over $1000 after a botched Lotto draw last night.

The number six Powerball was knocked off the pipe by other balls spinning in the machine.

The number one was later produced in an audited off-air draw.

The North Shore resident, who did not want to be named, won $656 but would have won $1714 had the original Powerball number been kept.

The North Shore woman's ticket clearly shows she would have won more had the Powerball number 06 been kept. Photo / Supplied

While she missed out on a bigger prize the woman was happy it would at least cover her weekly grocery bill for eight people.

"Obviously I would have loved to have won more but that wasn't to be," she told the Herald.

"Yes I will continue to buy the odd Lotto ticket and hope that lightning doesn't strike twice and they don't have any more technical issues."

Lotto has said they "can't speculate on alternative outcomes" on who would have won had the draw been without technical issues.

Lotto spokeswoman Emilia Mazur admitted they had fielded a few complaints from customers today.

Mazur said the chances of the Waikato person who won $1million with Lotto First Division were not affected by the changed Powerball.

Over 200,000 players won prizes last night from the million tickets that were entered into the Saturday Lotto and Powerball draw.

Mazur said that there had been "less than a handful" of occasions in Lotto's 30-year history of over 1600 live on-air draws where they have had to conduct the rest of the draw off air.

"There are strict processes and procedures that must be adhered to for every Lotto and Powerball draw.

"In an extremely rare occurrence last night, following a technical issue the draw was conducted off air under audit scrutiny, which provided the official results."

Lotto presenter Sonia Gray announced the Powerball number six had been drawn before realising it had been knocked off.

"OK, unfortunately we appear to be suffering, experiencing some technical difficulties. The remainder of the draw will now be conducted off-air under audit scrutiny."

The final Lotto numbers are 17, 18, 21, 34, 37 and 40, and the bonus ball is 12.

The Powerball number from the audited off-air draw is 01.

Powerball rolls over to $6 million on Wednesday night.