Auckland Lotto Winners: Couple & Mum Claim $12.75M Prize | NZ Herald

Two Auckland residents are celebrating substantial Lotto Powerball wins after splitting a $25.5 million jackpot on Saturday night, each taking home $12.75 million. The winning tickets were both purchased via MyLotto.

The winning numbers were 05, 12, 19, 27, 30, and 38, with a bonus ball of 14 and a Powerball of 03, according to Lotto New Zealand.

Each winning ticket included $12.5 million from Powerball First Division and an additional $250,000 from Lotto First Division, bringing the total prize to $12.75 million per winner. This marks the seventh and eighth Powerball multi-millionaires created this year, following a $4.5 million win in Auckland just over a month prior.

Auckland Man Tweaked Powerball Number to Win

One of the winners, an Auckland man, revealed a lucky quirk in his ticket-buying strategy. He typically adjusts the Powerball number on his ticket to one of his preferred numbers. “Powerball number 3 cropped up twice, so I didn’t change it the second time – and that’s the line we won on,” he said, as reported by the NZ Herald.

He discovered his win while logging into the MyLotto app, surprising his partner just before bedtime. “I was in the bathroom getting ready for bed when I suddenly heard him shouting my name,” his partner recounted. “Then he appeared in the doorway as calm as anything, saying ‘I think we’ve won Powerball.’”

Emoji Hint to Children

Another winner, an Auckland mother, opted for a more playful approach to sharing the news with her children. She sent them a jazz hands emoji before inviting them over for a family dinner to reveal the win. Her children initially suspected something was amiss when they received the unexpected invitation.

“So when Mum got in touch to say they were coming over to talk to us, I thought something was wrong. But then she followed it up with a message saying ‘and then we’ll all go out for dinner’ with a jazz hands emoji, so that calmed me down a bit.”

One of the children, as reported by the NZ Herald

The family kept the news quiet for a few days before gathering to share the life-changing news.

Additional Winners

In addition to the two Powerball winners, two other players won $250,000 each with Lotto First Division. One winning ticket was sold at New World Broadway in Palmerston North, and the other was purchased via MyLotto by a player from Canterbury. Two Strike players also won $200,000 each, with winning tickets sold at Dominion Superette in Auckland and Kaimanawa Store in Palmerston North.

Twenty-eight players each won $13,923 with Lotto Second Division, with four of those also claiming an additional $6,746 in Powerball Second Division, bringing their total winnings to $20,746. These winning tickets were sold on MyLotto to players from Waikato, Taranaki, the West Coast, and Ashburton.

Lotto NZ is encouraging anyone who purchased tickets from the winning stores or on MyLotto to check their tickets immediately, either in-store, online, or through the MyLotto app. Players with questions about claiming a prize can contact Lotto NZ at 0800 695 6886.

This win follows a recent change to the Powerball format announced by Lotto NZ earlier this week, the first such change in nearly two decades.