Lotto $6.3m winner: 'I can buy my own home and help others'

A Hamilton man has scooped a $6.3m Lotto win using a trick he saw on TV nearly a decade ago to select the lucky numbers.

His dreams of buying his own home have come true after winning $6.3m with Powerball in Wednesday's Lotto draw.

"It's an amazing feeling knowing that I'm now able to buy my own home and help others – that's what's most exciting thing about this win.

"I've been playing Lotto for a year or so and I always said that the first thing I would do is buy a house – and that hasn't changed!"

He chose his lucky numbers using a method from a TV show he'd watched nearly a decade ago.

"In the show they talked about how your birthdate could be used to create lucky numbers. Something about it stuck with me and a couple of months ago I decided to give it a try on my Lotto ticket," said the man.

The winner, who wishes to remain anonymous, said he had no idea about the win until someone at work mentioned a local winner.

"He was talking about the recent Powerball win and it reminded me that I still hadn't checked my ticket yet," he said.

"So that night, I looked up the winning numbers online and when I noticed that they looked familiar, I grabbed my ticket and checked the numbers off – the winning numbers really did jump out at me."

Disbelief was his first reaction.

"Honestly I didn't really believe it at first – I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, that it was a bit of an optical illusion or something," he said. "I checked and rechecked the ticket quite a few times before it began to sink in."

He said it was an anxious night after realising he'd won big.

"I was in so much shock I just paced the room for a while – I probably wore down the floorboards," he said.

"Even though I was sure I had the winning ticket, I wanted to put my mind at ease so I decided to get up early and go for drive out of town to check my ticket at a Lotto store.

"I'll never forget what it felt like when that winning music played – it was a life changing moment."

With the money now safely in the man's bank account, the winner is planning to take a bit of time to decide what he wants to do next.

"I want to keep life as normal as possible. I love my job so there won't be any changes there. I'm just going to take some time to let everything sink in and take things one day at a time.

"This win has given me the financial freedom I never thought I would have. I can now buy my first house and use the winnings to help others.

"I feel incredibly blessed — it really feels like a dream come true."

The winner is the 16th Kiwi to win big with Powerball so far this year, joining 42 other players who have become overnight millionaires with Lotto NZ's games in 2018.

The lucky ticket was sold at Glenview Centre Lotto & Post in Hamilton, with First Division winnings comprised of $6 million from Powerball and $333,333 from Lotto.

This is the second Powerball win in less than 12 months for the lucky Hamilton store, with a $4.25 million prize won in November 2017.