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A winning Powerball ticket has not been claimed for a week. Lotto NZ is urging lottery players to verify their tickets. Photo / Supplied
The work weekend could be about to get a lot better for one lucky Kiwi Lotto player with a winning $ 5.5 million Powerball ticket that has yet to be claimed.
Lotto NZ has now placed a call to anyone who purchased a Paper Plus Morrinsville Powerball ticket for last Saturday’s drawing to verify their ticket before leaving for the weekend.
The $ 5.5 million prize pool is comprised of $ 5 million from Powerball First Division and $ 500,000 from Lotto First Division.
Lotto NZ’s Marie Winfield said her team was eager for the new New Zealand billionaire to review his ticket.
“We are looking forward to meeting you and celebrating your incredible victory,” he said.
“Powerball is certainly on a roll and there have been 25 Powerball winners so far this year, it’s an absolutely staggering number.”
Most Powerball winners claim their prize within days of winning, but occasionally put it down a bit longer before checking in and claiming their big win.
“The winner may know they have the winning ticket out of luck and they could be letting the news leak, or they may not realize that their little yellow ticket is worth millions,” Winfield said.
In December of last year, a $ 17 million prize was unclaimed for more than three weeks.
The South Island winner was coming to terms with the enormity of the victory and decided to stay quiet for a while before contacting Lotto NZ to claim the prize.
In August 2019, a Powerball prize of $ 12.2 million went unclaimed for more than two weeks.
The ticket was purchased on MyLotto and Lotto NZ was able to contact the winner who did not know they had won.
In 2017, it took a couple from Gisborne two weeks to claim a $ 6.5 Powerball prize.
They knew immediately that they had won, but wanted to take their time before stating that they were thinking about how to handle their windfall.
In 2014, a Hamilton couple sat on their winning $ 16.2 million ticket for 10 days before verifying and discovering they were the missing millionaires.
In 2013, Lotto NZ tracked down a Christchurch player who did not know he had won $ 22 million.
The man thought the prize had already been claimed, so he was surprised when Lotto NZ knocked on his door.
Anyone who has purchased a ticket at Paper Plus Morrinsville should write their name on the back of the ticket and immediately verify it at any Lotto point of sale, online at MyLotto.co.nz or through the Lotto NZ app.
