38 million reasons why you should go and buy a Lotto ticket
Lotto NZ expects more than a million tickets to be sold in the lead up to potentially the second-highest Powerball win of all time.
The jackpot tonight is worth $38 million, up from $34m on Wednesday.
Around 1.3 million tickets were sold ahead of the midweek draw.
If the prize this evening is won by a single ticket holder, it’ll be the second-highest total win in Powerball’s 19-year history.
The biggest Powerball prize of $44.1m went to a Hibiscus Coast couple in 2016.
While it’s too early to tell how many tickets will sell ahead of today’s draw, one for the same amount of cash in October 2019 saw 1.6 million tickets bought.
A similar number was expected this weekend, Marie Winfield, Lotto NZ’s head of communications and corporate social responsibility, said.
“We’re expecting it to be really busy in-store and online so encourage people to buy their tickets early to avoid the last-minute rush,” she said.
In February, 2.6 million tickets were sold for Lotto NZ’s $50m mustbe-won draw which was won by two separate ticket holders, each taking home $25.1m.
Sales peaked on the night of the draw between 6pm and 7pm when a jaw-dropping 2500 tickets were sold every minute — 150,000 in one hour.
One Lotto shop will be closely watching the draw. Unichem Stortford Lodge Pharmacy in Hastings has sold a winning First Division ticket 49 times.
The Hawke’s Bay store sells six times the number of Lotto tickets as any other store in the region in an average week.
Ahead of a $35m draw in February, the pharmacy was so busy it was forced to operate three Lotto machines at once to keep the queue down.
Nelson’s Richmond Night ‘n Day comes in second with 35 first division wins.
The most frequently drawn Powerball numbers have been 2, followed by 3, 6, 1, 5, 8, 4, 7, 10, and 9.