$50 million Powerball draw will rock on
Auckland may be under level 3 lockdown but there’s a glimmer of hope as the must-be-won $50 million Powerball prize will be drawn tonight.
“It can go ahead because people can buy online, they just have to really not wait until the last minute,” said Lotto NZ head of communications Marie Winfield.
Punters can also buy tickets in person as essential services such as supermarkets, dairies and petrol stations can have customers on site under level 3 restrictions, while around the rest of the country, Lotto outlets can operate near normal under level 2, as long as public health measures are followed. However, some Lotto counters may be closed.
If there are no first division winners tonight, the entire jackpot will roll down to the next division until the prize is struck.
Since the previous lockdown, the number of people playing Lotto NZ online has increased by 33 per cent, which has led to some technological problems.
The app and website both crashed on Thursday because of the number of people trying to check their tickets after Wednesday’s $43m draw which jackpotted until tonight.
If the draw is won by a single ticket holder, it will be the largest Powerball prize win in Lotto NZ history, beating the current record of $44.1m won by a Hibiscus Coast couple in 2016.
If there is more than one winner in the division, the jackpot will be shared equally among all of them.
In February, another $50m must-be-won draw was split between two winners who each pocketed $25.1m.
Winfield advised New Zealanders to get in before the mad rush this evening.
“We don’t want anyone to miss out,” she said.
More than 1.9 million tickets were sold for the $50m must-bewon Powerball jackpot in February.
For the record, your chances of winning Powerball — one in 38 million — are much less likely than you being struck by lightning — one in 280,000.