$6.5m Lotto prize still unclaimed

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Hokitika is on tenterhooks with a life-changing $6.5 million winning Lotto ticket still not claimed by this morning.

Gary Lee, of Hokitika New World where the ticket was sold, said scores of ticket holders had called in to check their tickets, just in case.

However, as of this morning the West Coast's potentially newest multi-millionaire was still to come forward.

"At this stage we have had no word that the ticket has been claimed and we have had no one in to claim it. There have been lots and lots of people in trying their luck, though, and a huge amount of excitement obviously around the town, which is great," Mr Lee said.

The massive prize, made up of $6 million from Powerball first division and $500,000 from Lotto first division, rolls over Hokitika's lucky Lotto streak to another year.

Late last year a Hokitika couple won $2m on a ticket bought from the Fitzherbert Street Four Square. Only two months later the store had another winner, who cashed in $19,400 on second division.

New World has been on a lucky streak since 2010, throwing out a number of big cash wins, including its largest of $11m, as well as prizes of $500,000 and $250,000.

It also sold a number of smaller second division winning tickets last year with windfalls of $18,000, $14,903 and $16,837. Those wins followed on from Kaniere couple Rex and Anthea Keenan's 'Winning Wheel' victory in late 2013, when they spun a prize of $250,000.

Lotto New Zealand's head of corporate communications Emilia Mazur said 2015 was proving to be "incredibly lucky" for Lotto players across the country.

"This is the fourth time this year that a major jackpot has been struck, creating four new multi-millionaires in Auckland, Nelson, Palmerston North and now Hokitika."