Where Do You Keep Your Golden Ticket?

14 October 2013

Where Do You Keep Your Golden Ticket?

In the car glove box, pinned to the kitchen corkboard or simply in a pocket or wallet: every Lotto player has somewhere they like to stash their tickets.

As Lotto New Zealand continues to search for the owner of the $22.6 million Big Wednesday ticket, it reveals some of the most common hiding places where it could be found and notes that winning tickets turning up after some time is not an uncommon phenomenon.

In April this year, a man from Christchurch found a Lotto ticket worth $666,667 in his ‘odds and ends’ drawer, six months after the winning draw took place.

It was not until he went looking for some Sellotape to wrap his Dad’s birthday present that he came across a handful of old Lotto tickets and decided to check them online, only to discover that he was the missing Lotto First Division winner.

“I had heard rumours that a prize was outstanding from a ticket bought in Christchurch,” he said. “But I just thought it could never happen to me.”

Then in August this year, a woman from Auckland stumbled upon a Lotto ticket in the bottom of her bag and checked it to reveal a $500,000 Lotto win, six weeks after the draw had taken place.

“I’m still in shock,” she said at the time. “The ticket had been floating around in my handbag and I more or less forgot about it. I just happened to pop into a shop over the weekend and checked the ticket while I was there – I wasn’t expecting anything as I’m not a lucky person.”

A survey of some of Lotto New Zealand’s biggest winners over the last 26 years, conducted in May last year, cast a light on some of the idiosyncratic habits of golden ticket holders.

When asked where they kept their winning ticket after they found out they’d won, the most common responses were ‘in my wallet’, ‘in a drawer’ or ‘under my pillow’. One winner kept theirs in a bible and others had theirs discreetly tucked away in the laundry cupboard, bookcase or china cabinet. A couple of winners had left the ticket with their partner for safekeeping.

Some of the respondents didn’t know immediately that their ticket had won, so they’d been carrying it around with them for a couple of days, while another admitted that he often lets his tickets “build up for a month or so” before checking them.

So perhaps it’s time for a spring clean? With the $22.6 million Big Wednesday ticket still at large, a quick rummage in the pocket of an old pair of jeans or the back of a drawer could find you holding one of the most valuable tickets this year.

Anyone who bought their Big Wednesday ticket at Pak N Save Riccarton in Christchurch should write their name on the back of the ticket and check it immediately at any Lotto outlet or online at MyLotto.co.nz.

Big winners can also call the Lotto New Zealand helpdesk on 0800 695 6886 for information on how to claim their prize.

ENDS

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