South Africa's lottery probed as 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 drawn and 20 people win

The debate about whether the lottery is rigged continues. Photo / 123rf

The debate about whether South Africa's lottery is rigged continues after a recent draw came up with an unusual string of consecutive numbers.

The numbers 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 were drawn, while the Powerball was 10.

South Africa's national lottery has been accused of fraud as people can't believe those numbers were drawn at random.

An unprecedented investigation is under way by the lottery regulator, South Africa's National Lotteries Commission (NLC), after a public outcry claimed the draw must be rigged.

Twenty people were division one winners in the draw, taking home a prize of $5.7 million rand (around $NZ525,000) each.

An investigation is under way in the South African lottery draw. Photo / Twitter

Another 79 punters won $6283 rand ($NZ582) each for guessing the sequence from five to nine but missing the Powerball.

The odds of winning South Africa's Powerball lottery are one in 42,375,200.

But while they seem unlikely, the chances of the numbers appearing that were drawn are exactly the same as any other combination.

In a tweet, lottery operator Ithuba commented: "Congratulations to tonight's 20 winners of the Powerball draw. These numbers may be unexpected, but we see many players opt to play these sequences."

One Twitter user said it was "scam" while another suggested there was "absolutely no way in hell that's a coincidence".