1985
The "Sport on the Move" report by the Government-appointed Sports Development Inquiry identifies lotteries as a source of extra revenue for recreation, arts, community projects and sports.
December 1985
Cabinet asks the Department of Internal Affairs to prepare a detailed proposal for the introduction of Lotto.
February 1986
Cabinet approval for the introduction of Lotto.
November 1986
Enabling legislation introduced to Parliament.
December 1986
The Government appoints an Interim New Zealand Lotteries Commission.
April 1987
Parliament passes enabling legislation with a vote of 47-20 in favour.
1 June 1987
New Zealand Lotteries Commission established. Golden Kiwi came under the Commission's authority and sales for the 12 months to 31 March 1988 were $75,995,880.
22 July 1987
The first Lotto tickets go on sale.
1 August 1987
Lotto's first draw. The numbers were 4, 8, 16, 29, 32, and 40. The bonus ball was 30. The First Division prize on offer was $359,808.
14 September 1989
First Instant Kiwi games go on sale following the final Golden Kiwi Draw on 30 August. Three months' ticket stock was sold within the first three weeks with tickets running out completely for a period in early November.
3 April 1993
The first Lotto Strike game played. The first four numbers, in order, were 7, 36, 8, and 1.
13 October 1994
The first Keno draw. The numbers were 2, 6, 7, 14, 26, 27, 29, 34, 35, 37, 43, 45, 47, 49, 50, 53, 60, 61, 70, and 80.
17 February 2001
Powerball introduced. The first Powerball number drawn was 3.
17 August 2002
Keno is extended to Saturdays and Sundays.
2 November 2002
A second bonus ball is introduced to Lotto. The first bonus ball for the 2 November 2002 draw was 10 and the second bonus ball was 16.
10 May 2004
Keno extended with a 1pm draw and a 6pm draw each day of the week.
8 August 2004
Lotto First Division is now a million dollars every week and shared evenly between winners. Second Division prize increased from an average of $4,000 to an average of $20,000. Average prize values in all other divisions also increase. Second bonus ball phased out due to customer demand for simplicity.
21 August 2004
Peter McCabe wins $250,000 when he is the first person to spin Lotto's Winning Wheel. All tickets are eligible for the Winning Wheel, which gives another chance every week to win a million dollars or other great prizes.
18 August 2005
NZ Lotteries new look website is launched bringing fresh information to players in a more user friendly format. The site's new features include a winners' stories page and each Lotteries game has its own dedicated section.
4 September 2005
Kathy Laugesen becomes the first person win $1 million on Lotto's Winning Wheel. The Winning Wheel winning ticket holder spins every week live on Saturday's Lotto Draw.
26 October 2005
Big Wednesday, a mid-week game, is launched giving players the chance to win the ultimate lifestyle. The prize pool on offer includes $2 million in cash and luxury prizes consisting of Porsche 911, Range Rover Vogue V8, $50,000 worth of luxury travel every year for five years, $250,000 American Express Platinum card, Mustang luxury launch and a $500,000 bach.
8 February 2006
The Biggest win ever for Big Wednesday First Division was in Thames, where the Dip ticket purchased from Martina Four Square & Lotto netted $12,820,124 as well as the Second Division prize of $233,979.
20 May 2006
A Lotto ticket bought in Kaeo in Northland wins a Lotto Powerball First Division prize of $17,992,975 - the largest Powerball jackpot ever won by a single ticket in New Zealand.
30 June 2006
NZ Lotteries transfers a record $138.5 million to the NZ Lottery Grants Board for distribution to the community.
5 August 2006
NZ Lotteries celebrates Lotto's 1000th Draw with an amazing 1,100 extra prizes on offer for any player who buys a Lotto ticket. 1000 players win instant prizes of $1001 while 100 major prizes ranging from $10,000 to a top prize of $1 million.
7 December 2006
Big Wednesday launches exciting new prizes. On offer as part of winning the ultimate lifestyle is an Aston Martin V8 Vantage, an Audi Q7, $250,000 American Express Platinum card, $250,000 in First Class Travel, Rayglass Legend 2500, $500,000 Bach and a $750,000 Luxury apartment.
30 December 2006
28 Lotto players celebrate more than just the New Year after scooping the top prizes in Lotto’s biggest ever Christmas holiday promotion. Over $4 million in prizes were won in this promotion, with the 28 top prize winners joined in their celebrations by 1,000 players who already won $1,001 instant prizes in the three weeks leading up to Christmas.
17 March 2007
The second biggest Strike prize of $1.28 million was won on ticket sold at Whitcoulls, Auckland International Airport on St Patricks Day.
21 May 2007
A Devonport Keno player’s mistake proved to be a lucky one - winning him two prizes of $500,000, and making him Keno’s biggest-ever single prize winner. The new millionaire was said to be delighted with his win.
13 August 2007
Lotto Survey Reveals Big Winners Secrets
NZ Lotteries publishes the results of a survey of 75 past big winners (who had won between $400,000 and $15 million plus). The survey shows that Horticulture and farm workers (9%), taxi and truck drivers (5%) and office workers (13%) are the luckiest professions in New Zealand
The survey asked Lotto Family* winners a range of questions about their win – such as what they spent their money on, how they felt after winning, and advice they would give other winners having been through the experience themselves.
25 August 2007
Lotto celebrates its 20th Birthday on Saturday 25 August with $5.5 million in extra prizes on offer including three prizes of $1 million and 10 prizes of $250,000. The three millionaires made on the night were in Auckland, Foxton and Lower Hutt.
28 October 2007
The minimum First Division Lotto Powerball prize changes from $1 million to $3 million. On offer every week for Powerball players is a guaranteed $3 million! A second big change is that Powerball players can now choose their Powerball number from between 1 and 10, rather than the previous 1 and 8.
05 April 2008
The biggest ever Lotto and Powerball combined single ticket of $19,054,243 is won by a New Plymouth family who bought their ticket at Pak N Save New Plymouth.
26 May 2008
NZ Lotteries launches an online sales channel, ‘MyLotto’, that enables lottery players to purchase tickets through the Internet.
18 October 2008
Lotto Powerball reaches a $30 million ‘Must Be Won’ draw for the first time in its history. Lotto sales for the draw break all previous records and five Powerball players split the prize, winning $6.1 million each. The winners were in Auckland, Manukau, Wellington (2) and Reefton.
24 June 2009
Big Wednesday reaches a $36 million “Must Be Won’ draw for the first time in its history. Its 21 week jackpot run is the longest in NZ Lotteries history. The winners of the $36 million are a syndicate of four family members from Masterton.
July 2009
A new online ticket checking experience is introduced to MyLotto. Players can watch a simulation of the Lotto, Powerball, Big Wednesday and Keno draws online which circles their winning numbers on their ticket as the virtual balls drop out of the draw barrel.
September 2009
NZ Lotteries Annual Report is published and reports that sales for 2008 – 20009 reached a new record of $907.7 million. NZ Lotteries also increased the amount transferred to the Lottery Grants Board, distributing a record $189.3 million ($32.4 million more than the previous year).
September 2009
Instant Kiwi celebrates its 20th Birthday! NZ Lotteries crunched the numbers to find out which region in NZ has the most Instant Kiwi Top Prize winners (per head of population), and found that the Southland District was on top. In second place was the New Plymouth, South Taranaki, Wanganui and Rangitikei Districts and in third place was the Napier, Central Hawkes Bay and Gisborne regions.
03 October 2009
A $22.4 million Powerball prize is won by a ticket sold in Manukau. The $22.4 million win by a single ticket set a new record for the largest Powerball prize won to date. The winning ticket was purchased at Manukau Pak 'N’ Save, Manukau City, and was worth a total of $22,434,379.
12 October 2009
NZ Lotteries launches its world-first lottery game Bullseye. The game costs just $2 to play is designed as a small daily game to complement the other games in NZ Lotteries’ portfolio,. Players pick any number between 000,000 and 999,999 and if your number is within a set range either side of the Bullseye number, you win!
January 2010
Masterton is crowned as NZ Lotteries’ number one luckiest district for 2009.
Kuripuni Lotto and Post in Masterton contributed to this year’s result, by selling the biggest prize in NZ Lotteries’ history with Big Wednesday’s $36 million going to a local family in June.
17 February 2010
A Bullseye jackpot run of 61 draws came to an end with a Kaitaia winner collecting the top prize of $410,001 in Bulleye’s first ever ‘Must Be Won’ draw.
The 'Must Be Won' draw was triggered due to Bullseye’s jackpotting cash prize reaching the threshold of $400,000, as set out in NZ Lotteries’ Bullseye game rules.
17 March 2010
The first-ever Big Wednesday Promotion was a success with the winner, originally from Taranaki, heading to New York with friends and family for a luxury holiday thanks to the Trump Up Your Life promotion. NZ Lotteries secured top international businessman Mr Donald J Trump to participate in Big Wednesday’s promotion giving the winners a chance to meet him on their luxury trip to New York.
19 April 2010
Lotto Winner Claims $509,937 Prize In The Nick Of Time. Unbelievably, the holder of an unclaimed $509,937 Lotto ticket claimed his prize just one day before it expired. “As far as we’re aware, this is the first time a major prize has been claimed the day before its expiry date – if the winner had waited until Monday he would have unfortunately received nothing!” said NZ Lotteries' Chief Executive, Todd McLeay.
May 2010
Instant Kiwi relaunches its entire line-up of tickets, with a fresh and eye-catching new look and new prize structures designed to give players more prizes and better prizes.
4 October 2010
Lotto launches a new advertising campaign featuring Wilson the dog and his heroic journey to return a winning Lotto ticket to his owner. The advertising campaign introduces a new look for Lotto, that also includes revised pricing to account for the GST changes and a new starting point for Powerball, which has increased from $3 million to $4 million in a base week.
The Lotto draw also gets a make-over with a new set and filmed winning wheel segment.
16 October 2010
The biggest Lotto Powerball prize in NZ Lotteries’ history to date was won with a massive $28.7 million won by a player in Papakura. The winning Lotto Powerball ticket was sold at Mobil Papakura and is worth a total of $28,710,403.
The winner, a pig hunter from Papakura, came forward a few days later and said he would share his winnings with his family and spend more time relaxing!
January 2011
The Buller district is named as the luckiest district in New Zealand for 2010, taking the title from 2009’s winner Masterton.
5 March 2011
Following a devastating February earthquake in Christchurch, NZ Lotteries held a special purpose Lotto draw on 5 March to help raise funds for the Government’s earthquake appeal fund. A total of $8,248,300 was raised in the draw, in which fifty percent of sales from Lotto, Strike and Powerball was donated to the appeal via the Lottery Grants Board. More than 1.8 million tickets were sold, and sales were up by a third, or around $5 million, on the previous week.
9 April 2011
Powerball reached its second-ever $30 Million “Must Be Won’ jackpot and due to increased sales, the jackpot actually climbed to $35 million. There were two winners of Lotto Powerball First Division, who shared a record prize of $35,224,854. The tickets were sold at Dannevirke New World in Dannevirke and Take Note Dinsdale in Hamilton.
