Have you won $5.5 million? Check your Lotto ticket

A multi-millionaire could be celebrating their long weekend completely unaware they’ve won $5.5 million.

More than a week on from Lotto’s Powerball draw, the lucky winner still hasn’t claimed their big win.

Lotto NZ has urged anyone who bought a Powerball ticket from Paper Plus Morrinsville for last Saturday’s draw to check their ticket and see if they’re a winner.

The $5.5m prize is made of $5m from Powerball First Division and $500,000 from Lotto First Division.

Marie Winfield from Lotto NZ says most Powerball winners claim their prize within a few days of winning big, but some take their time and sit with the life-changing news for a few days.

“The winner may know that they have the lucky winning ticket and could just be letting the news sink in, or they may be completely unaware that their little yellow ticket is worth millions,” she said.

“We can’t wait to meet you and celebrate your amazing win.”

In December 2019 a $17.1 million prize went unclaimed for over three weeks, as the South Island winner quietly came to terms with the enormity of their win, laying low for a while before coming forward to Lotto NZ.

And in August 2019 a $12.2 million-dollar winner was only made aware they’d scooped up the prize when Lotto NZ contacted them through the MyLotto they’d bought the ticket on.

One winner got the surprise of this life when Lotto NZ turned up at his Christchurch home to tell him he’d won $22 million.

He’d thought the prize had already been claimed.

Winfield said there’d already been 25 Powerball winners so far this year.

“It’s an absolutely staggering amount,” she said.

Anyone who purchased their ticket from Paper Plus Morrinsville in Morrinsville should write their name on the back of the ticket and check it immediately at any Lotto outlet, online at MyLotto.co.nz or through Lotto NZ App, Winfield said.

Players can phone Lotto on 0800 695 6886 to find out how to claim a prize.