Unclaimed $17m lotto ticket: How much interest is lost every day

A massive Lotto win remains unclaimed. Photo / File

A massive $17.1 million Lotto win has gone unclaimed for the past nine days.

While missing out on more than $17m is bad enough, every day that the money goes unclaimed, the winner is losing thousands of dollars in potential interest.

If the money was sitting in the bank in as a 12-month term deposit rather than in Lotto's coffers, the winner could be earning an interest rate as high as 2.9 per cent per annum.

Based on a straight calculation, this would equate to $493,000 in pre-tax interest in the first year.

This equates to around $1350 in potential pre-tax earnings every day.

Given the money has remained unclaimed for nine days, the winner has already inadvertently lost more than $12,000 in pre-tax earnings.

Winners have 12 months to claim their winnings but Lotto NZ spokeswoman Marie Winfield indicated Lotto NZ would make every effort to find the person with a win of this size.

The multi-million-dollar winning Powerball first-division ticket was purchased at The Market Store in Twizel.

A few years ago, Lotto managed to track down a Powerball winner who did not claim the winnings by using CCTV footage.

However, Winfield expected this winner to get in touch with Lotto within the week.

Biggest Powerball first division wins in 2019:

• $22.3m, Inglewood Bookcentre, Taranaki (Jan 2)

• $19.1m, MyLotto, Auckland (Oct 16)

• $18.2m, Gulf Harbour Four Square, Whangaparaoa (Nov 23)

• $17.1m, The Market Store, Twizel (Dec 28)

• $16.5m, Woodys Winners, Wellsford (Jul 20)