Lotto shop scores hat-trick
The excitement is palpable as the owners of Temuka’s Village Post chalk up a hat-trick of consecutive winning Lotto tickets.
In just seven days the store has sold three winning tickets, with a combined total of $1,043,099 in prizes, prompting Lotto to say it ‘‘may just be’’ the luckiest store in New Zealand at the moment.
The run of luck started on Wednesday last week, when a player who bought a ticket from the store won a second division prize of $25,648. Three days later another customer won a first division prize of $1 million. Then in Wednesday night’s draw a third customer won a second division prize of $17,451.
‘‘We’re excited that’s three in a row ... we are waiting for the big one on Saturday,’’ Village Post coowner Felix Leo said.
The $30 million powerball was not won on Wednesday so balloons to $35 million for tomorrow’s draw.
On top of all this, a smaller third division prize of $1388 was also won with a ticket bought at the store last Wednesday and claimed by a Temuka woman on Friday.
None of the bigger winners had come forward, Leo said.
It was Post Shop co-owner Mary Felix who discovered yesterday morning that they had sold a third big winning ticket. She said with all the fuss she had not had time to check her own ticket from Wednesday’s draw.
She estimated the recent good luck bumped up customer numbers three-fold, many from out of town.
Temuka’s Jenna Howard won $23 on a ticket she bought on Wednesday and put her winnings straight back into a ticket for tomorrow’s draw.
‘‘I’m hoping to win something,’’ she told Stuff.
Paul O’Connell, of Temuka, is an occasional Lotto player and said he was not going to buy a ticket because he thought ‘‘all the good luck’s been’’.
Lotto New Zealand head of communications and corporate social responsibility Marie Winfield said the trifecta of winners was ‘‘amazing’’ and the last time one store sold three consecutive big winning tickets was in November 2013 at Kaiapoi New World.
‘‘Temuka must be buzzing with excitement, the store may just be the luckiest in New Zealand at the moment. With $35 million up for grabs on Saturday – can they make it four in a row?’’
She said the South Island had been a goldmine of Lotto luck this year with large wins in Alexandra, Christchurch Wanaka, Tuatapere and now Temuka.
‘‘Players who bought their ticket from Village Post Temuka for the last three draws should write their name on the back of the ticket and check them instore, on MyLotto or through the Lotto NZ App,’’ Winfield said.
‘‘We’re excited that’s three in a row ... we are waiting for the big one on Saturday.’’ Felix Leo
Village Post coowner