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Saturday's lucky Lotto punter who bought their $500,000 first division ticket from Brookfield New World claimed their prize yesterday, but whether they are a local remains a mystery.
Hanna Kilpin, a spokeswoman from the NZ Lotteries Commission, confirmed to the Bay of Plenty Times that the Brookfield New World winning ticket had been claimed at a Lotto outlet.
Brookfield New World owner Dean Waddell said his store had sold a first division ticket and a couple of second division tickets over the past few years and he was pleased to have sold another top prize.
" I am rapt that someone in our community may be fortunate enough to hold the winning ticket and hopefully it is one of our good regular customers. It would be fantastic if it was," he said
Mr Waddell said the whole store was abuzz with the news and like everyone else he was anxiously waiting for more details about the lucky punter.
Saturday's $8.5 million winning Lotto powerball ticket was sold at Whitcoulls New Lynn, Auckland, and two Strike Four players from Kawakawa and Auckland won $177,058 each.
To mark Lotto's quarter of a century celebrations, this weekend an extra $7.5 million in prizes will be given away.
All Lotto tickets bought within the promotional period - August 12 to 7pm on Saturday - will receive a special promotional voucher, putting the buyer in the draw to win extra prizes.
There are three top prizes of $1 million to be won, plus more than a thousand other prizes, including 11 instant prizes of $25,000 up for grabs. Since Lotto's first draw in August 1987, NZ Lotteries has made 400 millionaires and given away $7 billion in prizes.