5 Biggest Lottery Wins in New Zealand

October 11, 2022

We all dream of winning a stunning lottery! But only a few of us will end up winning a jackpot at a lottery. Most of the times you win a small amount of money when you hit a win at a New Zealand lottery. Only a few Kiwis end up winning a stunning multi-million jackpot at a lottery. Lotto New Zealand is the biggest lottery in New Zealand and in recent years the lottery made a lot of players millionaires. On this page we tell you more about big wins and the 5 biggest lottery wins in New Zealand. 

When we have a closer look at winning a lottery jackpot we find out that your chances are around 38 million to one. These odds are active when you play 6 ball bingo with a bonus ball. Big jackpots are interesting and when they jackpots rise to stunning numbers the whole country starts buying lottery tickets. You never know if you win the stunning jackpot, and it could only cost you a few dollars.

There have been multi-million dollar winners who only spent NZ$2 on a lottery ticket. Every player could be a lucky winner at a New Zealand lottery.

biggest lottery wins new zealand

Powerball New Zealand the place to be for the biggest lottery wins

When we talk about a lottery with big wins we talk about the Powerball. The powerball attracts most attention when we look at jackpots. Record after record has been broken during the Powerball lotteries in New Zealand.

In order to win the Powerball you have to win the Lotto First Division and als have the winning Powerball on the same line. That is very hard, if not impossible. Winning the First Division lottery is already hard but nailing the Powerball is even harder. When you do win the Lotto First Division you are already a millionaire. But nailing the Powerball on top will make you a multi-millionaire.

Although it is hard to win the Powerball and other lotteries there have been a few stunning winners. Let’s have a look at the 5 biggest lottery wins in New Zealand in recent years.

Biggest Lottery Wins New Zealand

Since 2017 the maximum jackpot on a lottery has been capped at NZ$50 million. Once the jackpot hits this cap the next draw is a must win draw. That means the following draw will produce a player winning the 50 million jackpot. If there are no winners at the First Division Lotto the multi-million jackpot will be splut between winners in the Second Division Lotto.

Ok, now it is time to have a look at the 5 biggest lottery wins in the last few years in New Zealand.

1 NZ$50 Million – 10 Lucky Winners August 2020

This was a crazy draw because no players won the First Division Powerball jackpot. That means the jackpot was split between winners at the second Division Lotto. This happened back in August 2020.

10 Second Division Winners won a stunning NZ$5 million jackpot. This lottery draw became one of the most dramatic ones in history of the New Zealand lottery. A NZ$50 million jackpot split between 10 second division winners. Each winner walking away with NZ$5 million. This draw was dramatic because a few player bought up to NZ$2.000 worth of tickets for this draw. These players did not win the jackpot.

At the end of the draw 10 players who only bought a few tickets won the stunning jackpot. 5 Of the winners bought their tickets in Auckland. Buying a lot of tickets does not give you any guarantees of winning a huge amount of money.

2 NZ$50 Million – 2 Lucky Winners February 2020

Just before COVID-19 hit the world 2 Kiwis became multi-millionares. During the capped Powerball draw in February 2020 2 lucky players won NZ$25 each. These players where the first to win a NZ$50 million capped jackpot during a Powerball draw.

The first player bought his ticket in a City Mall in Manukau and he only bought a few tickets. His total spend on tickets was under NZ$20. Isn’t that a decent return? The other player bought his ticket in Auckland and he invested les than NZ$50 on tickets.

Both players where among the few lucky players to win a multi-million jackpot during a New Zealand lottery.

3 NZ$44.066.667 – Won by a player living on the Hibiscus Coast in 2016

This draw was bigger than all other previous draws. The week before the draw a record breaking amount of tickets was sold. It looked like every person in New Zealand bought at least one ticket. This draw was complete chaos. Systems breaking down during the last week and rows at ticket shops.

The winning couple from Hibiscus Coast bought their tickets at the Diary Flat Food Mart and Liquor a bit north of Auckland. They only bought a few tickets. During the draw the husband noticed he had all numbers on one line and he started yelling “Holy fucking shit”. At the moment of the draw he was driving with his boss and his boos thought something was wrong with him. On the radio they talked about the huge jackpot abd at that moment the husband started screaming “That is me”.

In a short interview the couple told they had a struggle when they bought their latest house. It was hard to get the finance situation in order. After winning this stunning 44 million jackpot they won’t have any struggles in the future. They now have enough money in the bank to buy a number of houses, cars and a lot more.

new zealand biggest powerball lottery winners

4 NZ$38 Million – Split between 2 lucky players in October 2019

Two years before this draw there was a 38 million split. This month it happened again. And again people from Auckland won the draw. It looks like Aucklanders are the most lucky people in New Zealand with a lot of jackpot wins in recent years.

This time the 38 million jackpot got split between 2 winners. Both winners took home NZ$19.142.857 after the Powerball draw. One of the lucky winners was a woman. She bought her tickets a few minutes before the final draw. Isn’t that good timing? Her husband told her that they did not buy any tickets yet. She tought about driving to the ticket shop but decided to buy a ticket on the MyLotto website. As she tought there would not enough time to drive down the store.

Two minutes before the draw she completed her transaction. It took a while because she forgot her login and had to find her credit card to pay the tickets. It was a race against the clock. But in the end it was a good call to buy the ticket. At that moment it was the second biggest lottery win in New Zealand.

5 NZ$38 Million – 2 Winners November 2017

Two years before the first 38 million split two winners from Greytown and Warkworth won NZ$19 million the Powerball in November 2017. They where lucky because 4 other players came really close. These 4 players came within one number from a share of the jackpot. One of the two winners stopped working a second after he won the jackpot.

Initially this winner did not know he won the jackpot. He went to a ticket shop and handed over his tickets. The lady behind the counter scanned all the tickets and after a few tickets her face changed. She got a huge smile on her face and her eyes were wide. The lady noticed that the guy in front of her won the Powerball jackpot. She told him he won over 19 million. The moment she told him he didn’t even register what she said. After a few minutes the message landed and at that moment he called his boss to tell him he would stop working.


How to win a huge jackpot

With a lottery you can win huge jackpots but the chance of winning it is so small. There is a chance but it is around 38 million on one. When you want to win jackpots you can better play at online casinos in New Zealand. POnline casinos offer casino games and pokies with jckpots. These jackpots vary from multi-million jackpots to mini jackpots between NZ$1.000 and NZ$1.000.000. The chance you win these jackpots is a lot bigger than getting a place between the biggest lottery wins in New Zealand.

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