$6.5m Lotto win unclaimed

A $6.5 million Lotto prize remains unclaimed after 12 days.

The winning ticket for the Powerball First Division prize drawn on March 11 was sold by Grant Bros in Gisborne but has not yet been claimed.

The $6.5m ticket was the 13th First Division winner Grant Bros had sold — and its first Powerball winner.

Owner Renee Grant said the store was bustling.

“It’s really exciting for us . . . Everyone is looking high and low for the ticket. Each day the ticket goes unclaimed, more and more people are coming through the door . . . People are also coming in just to buy their tickets from us — I think the word has got out that we are the lucky store in town.”

Lotto NZ’s general manager of corporate communications, Emilia Mazur, said it was unusual for a prize of that size to go unclaimed for such a long period, but not unheard of.

In 2013, a $22m prize remained unclaimed in Christchurch for more than three weeks.