Lotto NZ has confirmed the $30 million The Powerball first division prize has been claimed by a Wellington family, despite being bought on MyLotto by a player registered as Carterton.
The family syndicate, who wish to remain anonymous, are occasional players who buy a ticket together whenever the jackpot is over $20 million.
“When I bought the ticket, my daughter-in-law immediately transferred her share of the ticket to me, she told me that she ‘didn’t want to owe anything,'” the man told Lotto.
Later that night, the family saw on the news that Powerball had been won in Carterton, so they didn’t think to check their ticket.
“I usually don’t check my tickets until I have to buy another one, so it could be over a month before I even look,” the man said.
He was checking his emails the next day when he saw one from MyLotto customer support.
“He said I won a big prize, but I didn’t know what that meant.”
He decided to wait until the family was together before checking his winnings.
“I sent him a message and told him to come back. Whatever we won, he wanted us to discover together as a family.”
Before accessing the MyLotto app, the family talked about what they might have won and what they would do with the money.
“The man’s son decided that if they won a few thousand, he would treat himself and his wife to a king size bed, he didn’t know that he could buy some king size beds after checking his ticket,” Lotto said in a statement.
Then the family watched as the animated draw was played, and the numbers on their tickets circled one by one. Suddenly, they heard the winning music, and their ticket had “$30,166,667” printed on the top.
“We didn’t really think it was real – why would it? We were so shocked and kept looking at each other going ‘what?’ ‘How?’
“How could it be us when the news said the winner was from Carterton?” he said.
The man’s son checked the parameters of his father, who had him in Carterton.
“All I can think of is that I accidentally put Carterton in when I signed up to MyLotto.”
The family is still coming to terms with their victory, but they plan to keep the land, all still going to work this week despite knowing they are multimillionaires.
“We lived a modest life, and we did not plan to change our lives drastically. We know what it is like to go through hard times, so this victory will make all our lives so much easier.”
“I always dream of winning Powerball, and in your head, you’ve mapped out what you’re going to do, but it’s so different when you actually win.
“We’re going to do some renovations and we know we’d like to do some family travel. It’s also important for us to help charities and causes that are close to our hearts, so we’ll do that. the track too.”
The huge prize is the biggest prize won by a single ticket since August 2023, when a Paraparaumu couple won $37.125 million.
