Punters seizing chance at ‘dream’
As many as four times more Wellingtonian wannabe millionaires are popping in to their local Lotto shop to grab a chance at a $38 million windfall.
Tonight someone, somewhere in the country could be $38m richer after jackpots of $28m last Wednesday and $32m on Saturday failed to find winners.
Now people are flocking to stores to get what Pravin Vallabh, of Freeman’s Lotto and News Agency, calls ‘‘a chance at a dream’’.
He said lots of people were coming into his shop near the railway station – some usual faces but also some new.
‘‘They’d never bought it, before – the Lotto. It’s just for a dream.’’
He said plenty of people were struggling and wanted to be able to buy a home, and Lotto was a shot at that.
The number of people coming in now the jackpot was
$38m was ‘‘considerably high’’ – about two or three times as many, Vallabh said.
His son and business partner Jaynesh Vallabh has bought a ticket. ‘‘I’d be silly not to. It would be a shock to the system at first. I’d still show up to work the next day. I’m sure I’d find 38 million different things to spend it on.’’
Up the road at Lambton Mart, Alpesh Patel put the rise in Lotto punters at as much as four times as many.
‘‘As the number increases, the sales are going up. People are spending more money.’’
People had been coming in throughout the day – before work, lunchtime and after work.
One of those was regular Lotto player John Allison. He normally buys one ticket but this week had ‘‘bought extra’’.
If he won, he’d pay off debt, buy some houses and look after family and friends.
Lotto NZ senior corporate communications manager Kirsten Robinson said there were around 1.6 million tickets entered into Saturday’s draw, and 1.7 million were expected to be in today’s Powerball draw. Powerball could jackpot to a maximum of $50m but a ‘‘Must Be Won’’ draw could be called any time.
The jackpot available to be won in the next draw depended on sales but it was too early to say what those would be.
It wasn’t the first time the Powerball jackpot had cracked $38m. In late 2017, it was split between two players from Warkworth and Greytown who each took $19.1m.
However, if tonight’s draw was won by a single player, it would be the second largest prize ever won in New Zealand. The largest was $44m, won in November 2016 by a young couple from the Hibiscus Coast.
One of those winners said he saw he had all the numbers on one line and ‘‘just yelled holy sh...’’.
‘‘As I was driving to the store, they were talking about the big win on the radio and I started screaming out, ‘That’s me!’ ’’