$40m Lotto winnings yet to be claimed

Lotto television host Sonia Gray selling tickets for last night’s draw. Photo / Cherie Howie

The entire $40 million prize from Lotto's record-breaking Powerball jackpot remains unclaimed this morning as the three winners who will share the amount have yet to come forward.

They each will share $13.3m after the prize rolled down to three Powerball Second Division winners.

There was no winner in First Division in last night's draw.

The winning tickets were sold at Oparau Roadhouse in Te Awamutu, Pak'nSave Dunedin and on MyLotto to a player from Hamilton.

Bill and Brenda Rogers, the owners of Oparau Roadhouse on State Highway 31, were ecstatic to hear they had sold a winning ticket.

"We're hoping it's gone to someone in the district," Brenda Rogers said. "There was a 60th birthday party on [last night] everyone was going to.

"People will be buzzing."

The sale of the $13.3m winning ticket capped a super-lucky day for the Roadhouse, with the Rogers selling a $10 scratchie that won a $200,000 prize earlier in the day.

"The result is so overwhelming," Brenda Rogers said. "The Lotto representative is coming today. It sounded like she was expecting a big crowd."

Morgan Taipari, senior manager of the Commercial Hotel in Te Awamutu, expected a lot of buzz around the Waikato town as people found out about the result.

He said it would be "pretty cool" if the ticket was bought by a local.

Up to 2000 tickets a minute were sold as Lotto mania took hold yesterday. One punter shelled out $10,000 on tickets.

Lotto television host Sonia Gray with young fans yesterday. Photo / Cherie Howie

And demand to learn the lucky numbers saw Lotto's website crash shortly after the draw, with a message on its homepage telling punters: "We're extremely busy at the moment. Please bear with us and try again later. We're sorry for any inconvenience."

"It feels like just about everyone in the country was talking about Powerball and imagining how good it would feel to win, and now these lucky players are about to find out," Lotto spokeswoman Emilia Mazur said last night.

In the lead-up to the biggest ever Lotto draw, Lotto NZ chief executive Wayne Pickup said the past week was "shaping up to be record-breaking".

The jackpot reached a must-go $40m last night, after failing to be struck at $34m on Wednesday and $30m last Saturday.

Kiwis went Lotto crazy, buying more than 1 million tickets for Saturday's and Wednesday's draws, compared with a normal draw's sale of about 750,000 tickets.

As queues backed up, Lotto presenter Sonia Gray made an appearance at West City Lotto, in the Auckland suburb of Henderson, where she served customers.

More than a thousand tickets for the massive prize pool had been sold from the store by 12.30pm and Gray said she was "feeling the buzz".

"I've been asked to kiss a few tickets and rub a few," she said.

She spoke about what she would do if she won big. "I'd help friends and family and make a little dent in our homelessness crisis."

Punters had big dreams if they won, including including dream holidays, palatial pads and stress-free non-work lifestyles.

In an unscientific poll by nzherald.co.nz on Friday, Kiwis voted to pay off debt before spending big.

Lotto's biggest wins

• $33m won by an Auckland "westie" in 2013.

• $28.7m went to a pig-hunting Papakura father in October 2010.

• $26.5m to supermarket worker Trevor Cooper in March 2012.

• $22.4m to an Auckland couple in October 2009.

• $19m to a New Plymouth man in April 2008.