Lotto’s $5m blunder
Lotto’s Powerball draw went embarrassingly wrong live on air last night, outraging some and leaving others wondering what could have been.
Ball number six was drawn by the Powerball machine but was knocked off the pipe by another ball just as it started to rise.
“This is the Powerball number you need to make it happen. There it is — Powerball number six. Congratulations to all our winners,” host Sonia Gray said, before turning around to see the number had fallen out of the pipe.
“Okay, unfortunately we appear to be suffering, experiencing some technical difficulties. The remainder of the draw will now be conducted offair under audit scrutiny.”
The Powerball number drawn off-air was one.
A Waikato player scooped $1 million with Lotto First Division with a ticket bought online — but Powerball was not struck.
The mishap has left punters wondering if the first division winner missed out. If the winner’s Powerball number was six, he or she narrowly missed out on an extra $5 million.
Punters on Facebook praised Gray’s handling of the situation but most agreed Lotto should have stuck with the original number rather than doing a redraw.
“We all saw the 6 start to rise so it should stay as that. What a dumb rule if someone has lost out because of this,” wrote one player.
The last problem with the Lotto draw was in October 2014 when the Powerball machine also failed to produce a winning ball.
Last night’s blooper was the just the seventh time in Lotto’s 30-year history the draw was not completed live on air.
New Zealand uses two Lotto machines and two machines for Powerball.
The machines are selected randomly on the night of the draw under the scrutiny of Lotto, Audit NZ and Internal Affairs representatives.
Lotto could not be reached for comment last night.
Powerball has jackpotted to $6 million for Wednesday night’s draw.