New multi-millionaire claims prize

A Tauranga man scooped the Powerball jackpot on Saturday night to take home $10.3 million.

New Zealand's newest multimillionaire has an impulse decision to thank for all the zeroes now in his bank account.

Although the winner, who wishes to remain anonymous, is still having trouble believing his luck.

'It was getting late on Saturday night when I remembered that I hadn't bought a Lotto ticket,” says the winner.

'I don't play every draw, but I guess I just had a lucky feeling.

'I couldn't get to the shops in time, so I jumped online and grabbed a ticket through MyLotto.”

That last minute purchase proved to be a fortunate move for the Tauranga local, whose numbers all came up on Saturday night.

The winner wasn't even aware that someone had won the big prize when he jumped online earlier this week.

'I was checking my email when I saw a message from MyLotto saying, ‘you have won a prize', but I didn't know how much I'd won,” says the winner.

'I knew it was over $1000 because I had to fill in a prize claim form and I thought, ‘gee, this could be quite good'.

'Even when I logged into MyLotto and saw the amount $10.3 million I still thought I must have got one of the other prizes.

'Eventually I thought – maybe I'll just phone Lotto NZ and check. It was a helluva surprise when they told me I'd won the big one!”

With the millions now safely in his bank account the winner is starting to believe that he did actually win Powerball.

'It's incredible, but totally surreal,” says the winner.

While the winner and his family are 'over the moon” about their windfall, their first thought is about helping others.

'I want to be able to do good with it. I feel like this win is a gift and I'm going to be able to enrich a lot of other lives around me.”

The winner has already identified a number of charities he intends to support and is thinking about how he can help his local community.

This is the second largest Powerball prize won in the Tauranga region and the eighth Powerball win over the years.

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1 comment

My thoughts on this

Posted on 12-07-2017 12:23 | By old trucker

When anybody wins the stories are all the same,i feel lucky every time i buy one(20yrs,) and only minor ones, anyway good luck to him, spend it wisely,my thoughts on this is make all the other lines a bigger prize and bring back the xtra BONUS BALL,Thankyou,10-4 out.


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