Reinvestment Pays Off For Rotorua Syndicate

Media Release 24 May 2011

Reinvestment Pays Off For Rotorua Syndicate

A Division Five Lotto win three weeks ago has led to a $10.6 million Powerball win for a Rotorua family syndicate – a reinvestment that really paid off well, says NZ Lotteries’ Chief Executive, Todd McLeay.

“This is the nineteenth biggest win in NZ Lotteries’ history, and comes just six weeks on from the massive Must Be Won Lotto Powerball draw,” says Mr McLeay.

The winners came to claim their prize in the Wellington office today, and after a sleepless night, still hadn’t quite come to terms with the win, or what they were going to do with it.

“We’ll probably do a bit of travelling, and possibly get some tickets for the upcoming Rugby World Cup, but we’re not making any plans until we see the money in our bank account,” the winners joked.

The winners hadn’t realised they’d won until they read that a winning ticket bought at Countdown Rotorua hadn’t been claimed yet.

“We won $37 with Lotto a few weeks ago, so bought a couple of scratchies and a Power Dip with the winnings last week, and didn’t really think anything of it. When we read about the Countdown win we decided to check the numbers, and then weren’t sure if we’d won the big one or not, and then didn’t want to go to a big store, so checked it at a dairy,” says one of the happy winners.

“We called a family meeting, and of course they all thought something bad had happened – but when they found out it was good news, there was a lot of noise!

“This is a dream come true for us, it will help pay off mortgages and clear credit cards.”

The ticket was sold at Countdown Rotorua, and the prize of $10,632,434 is made up of $10,132,434 from Powerball First Division, plus $500,000 from their share of Lotto First Division.

This is the biggest win for the area – the next biggest was a ticket also bought at Countdown Rotorua in 2008. That prize was shared with another player from Waitakere, but the Rotorua local still took home a whopping $8,258,094.

Rotorua has been abuzz with the news about the big win, in particular the staff at Countdown Rotorua.

“The whole team is very excited, especially as this is our second big win for the store. We’re particularly glad it’s gone to a local, and hope they come back and spend some of their winnings on groceries here!” says Countdown Rotorua Service Administration Manager, Keith Amos.

ENDS

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