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New Zealand’s ‘luckiest’ Powerball number announced

Media Release 19 June 2015

New Zealand’s ‘luckiest’ Powerball number announced

With the Powerball jackpot reaching $20 million this week, Lotto New Zealand has announced New Zealand’s luckiest Powerball number so far this year – number 9.

While Powerball 9 isn’t the most frequently drawn number, it claims the title as 2015’s luckiest number so far after winning two lucky players more than $15.2 million between them.

Powerball 9 kicked off the year in style, winning a retired truck driver from Pukekohe more than $10 million in the first Powerball draw of the year.

The lucky winner received his winning Powerball ticket as a thank you gift from one of his best friends just days before the draw.

“Every now and again I buy my close friends a Lotto ticket while we’re out to say thanks for all their help,” explained the friend at the time.

“I asked the lady at the Lotto shop to write my friends’ initials on the tickets, so they were theirs from the moment she handed them to me. The winning ticket was meant to be his.”

But making one Kiwi’s dreams come true wasn’t enough for Powerball 9, with the number coming up again the very next month to give a Tauranga couple the Valentine’s Day gift of a lifetime.

After realising they’d become instant millionaires, the couple tucked their winning ticket away for safe keeping.

“My wife put the ticket in her handbag and hid the bag in the wardrobe in our bedroom. As we climbed into bed she turned to me and said ‘If anyone tries to steal it tonight, I’ll kill them,’” said the winner at the time.

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“I’d have felt really sorry for anyone silly enough to try and take the ticket off her,” he laughed.

This year has been especially lucky for Kiwi Lotto players, with a spectacular run of winning seeing more than $40 million in First Division Powerball prizes shared by six lucky players since January.

Lotto players can buy a ticket for this weekend’s $20 million Lotto Powerball draw from any Lotto retailer or online at MyLotto.co.nz.

Background:

2015 Powerball First Division wins

Date wonPrizeLocationWinners
3 Jan 2015$10.7 millionPukekoheA retired truck driver was given the winning Lotto ticket as a thank you present.
10 Jan 2015$5 millionNelsonA Dolly Parton loving couple are using their winnings to take the trip of a lifetime to Dollywood in America.
31 Jan 2015$6.5 millionHokitikaA family syndicate from Hokitika were looking forward to setting up the whole family for life with their winnings.
7 Feb 2015$4.3 millionWhanganuiA fancy car and big screen TV were top of the shopping list for Whanganui’s latest millionaire.
14 Feb 2015$4.5 millionTaurangaA retired couple celebrated their multi-million dollar win with a cold beer.
28 Mar 2015$9.1 millionAucklandA North Shore couple are looking forward to treating others to random acts of kindness with some of their winnings.

ENDS


© Scoop Media

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