• Over half of each week’s Lotto tickets are bought on a Saturday and, of these, around 25% are bought between 5.00pm and 7.00pm.
• The largest number of Division One winners for one draw was 38 - this happened on 11 September 1993 and each of the winners received $35,937.
• The smallest number of Division Two winners for one draw was 2 and first happened on 31 October 1987 and each of the winners received $45,506.
• The most popular types of Lotto tickets purchased are Triple Dips and self-selected tickets (“own numbers”), which each make up approx 30% of tickets purchased.
• Since it began on 1 August, 1987 more than $4.4 billion has been paid out in Lotto prize money to 74 million winners. There have been 4,092 First Division Lotto winners in that time (and 94 instant millionaire promotional winners). *
• Powerball’s first draw was on 17 February 2001. More than $842 million in prize money has been paid to over 1.8 million winners since Powerball began. There have been 91 First Division Powerball winners in that time. *
• Strike’s first draw was on 3 April, 1993. Since then $688 million has been won by more than 119 million winners. There have been 539 First Division Strike winners in that time. *
• No ticket type is inherently “luckier” than another. The big division one prizes are shared fairly evenly between ticket types according to their proportion of sales.
• Strike Four can jackpot for nine weeks. If the 10th draw is not won, the prize pool is shared by that week's Strike Three winners.
• Lotto's Winning Wheel has created fourteen millionaires since it started on 21 August 2004. The first winner was from Whakatane in September 2005, the second from Dunedin in November 2005, the third in September 2006 by a man from Auckland and the fourth in November 2006 by a Nelson man. A syndicate of eight workmates from New Plymouth struck the million on 28 July 2007, Wanganui local John Lawrence won a million on 26 January 2008, Reuben Elliot spun and won $1 million for his grandfather Lionel in April 2008, Dale Peckham spun $1 million in July, Levin local Mariana Hunt won $1 million in November, Arfon Williams won a $1 million in March 2009, Pamela Cooper from Auckland won in August, Gisborne man Alastair Jenkins won $1 million in September 2009, Foxton 22-year-old Sam Flipp won the big prize on 22 October 2011, and our latest winner, Vicky from Hamilton, spun and won the million on December 17, 2011*.
• On Saturday 24 May, 2008, the Winning Wheel had its 200th spinner on the live draw.
• On Saturday 09 October, 2010, a new Winning Wheel spinner video montage was introduced to the Lotto draw, along with a new look set and Winning Wheel.
• In its first full year of operating 1987-1988 $64.5 million was won on Lotto prizes.
• Lotto celebrated 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 were in Auckland, Foxton and Lower Hutt.
• From 28th October 2007, the minimum Lotto Powerball First Division Prize was $3 million and Powerball players could choose their Powerball number from between 1 and 10, rather than the previous 1 and 8. In October 2010, the minimum Powerball First Division prize was raised again, to $4 million.
• The largest combined Lotto and Powerball prize won by a single ticket was $28,710,403 – this comprised of $28,309,882 from Powerball First Division and $400,521 from Lotto First Division, and was won by a Papakura man on 16 October 2010.
• Draw 1115 on Saturday 18 October 2008 was the first 'Must Be Won' draw at the $30 million threshold. With no First Division Powerball winners, the prize rolled down to the Second Division Powerball winners. The five winners from Auckland (2), Wellington (2) and Reefton won a total of $6,169,014 - made up of a $6,146,881 share of Powerball, plus a $22,133 share of Lotto's Second Division.
- The second 'Must Be Won' draw was held on 9 April 2011 reached a new record prize offer for Powerball First Division - more than $35 million - and was won by two First Division winners who purchased their tickets from Take Note Dinsdale in Hamilton, and Dannevirke New World. Each winner won $17,723,538 made up of $111,111 from Lotto First Division and $17,612,427 from Powerball Second Division.
• The highest individual Strike prize of $1,764,676 was won by an Auckland family in November 2008.
• In Jan-Feb 2010, there was a remarkable run of four Powerballs being won in four weeks in a row.
• On Saturday 05 March 2011 1.8 million tickets were sold for a special Lotto draw, which raised $8,248,300 for the Government’s Christchurch Earthquake Appeal. Fifty percent of the sales of all Lotto, Lotto Strike and Lotto Powerball tickets entered into the draw went to help the people of Christchurch.
* As of January 2012.
