Lotto Powerball $50 million: The process before the live draw revealed

As you're more than likely well aware, New Zealand's largest Lotto sum is up for grabs tomorrow night, a monstrous must-be-won $50 million.

More than two million tickets were expected to be sold ahead of the record-breaking draw, with your chances of winning sitting at about one in 38 million.

The hardworking staff at Lotto don't just rock up and do the draw, there are a number of procedures and controls in place to make it as random as possible.

There are coin tosses, multiple machines, a secure storage unit, a couple of keys, laptops, security guards and even an Audit NZ scrutineer involved.

Tomorrow night's draw would be no different, Lotto's head of communications and corporate social responsibility Marie Winfield said.

"Before every draw a coin toss is carried out to determine which machines and balls are used for Lotto and Powerball," she said.

There are two identical machines of each type which are selected. Photo / Supplied

"The coin is tossed four times to determine the Lotto machine, the Powerball machine, the Lotto ball-set and the Powerball ball-set.

"The selected machines are wheeled out into the studio and a robust testing process is completed."

The draw will take place around 8pm and be broadcast live on TV1, with the results available on MyLotto from around 9.15pm.

If you bought a ticket on MyLotto and were a winner, you would get a message in your account the morning after the draw.

Meanwhile, if you won a prize over $1000 you would also be sent an email about the news and instructing you how to claim the prize.

Lotto's pre-draw procedures and controls:

• A minimum of three people are present, each with designated responsibilities. They include: Two Lotto NZ representatives and one Audit NZ scrutineer.

• The draw machines (2x Lotto, 2x Powerball) and ball sets are kept in a secure storage unit within TVNZ's premises.

• Two keys are required to unlock the storage unit – both keys are sealed and kept in a safe. Security guards hand one each to a Lotto rep and the scrutineer.

• The seals are checked to confirm there have been no changes since they were last re-sealed.

• The draw laptops are removed from a locked cupboard, these also contain the coins. The laptop is used to enter the numbers into Lotto NZ's gaming system.

• The coin is tossed four times before the secure unit is opened: Lotto machine, Powerball machine, Lotto ball set and Powerball ball set (2x Lotto balls, 2x Powerball balls).

If a fault is found with a machine, it is replaced. Photo / Supplied

• The coins have been used for more than 10 years and are old 20c pieces. There are two - one is used for Wednesday's draw and the other for Saturday's.

• The two machines and two sets of balls being used for the draw are removed from the secure storage units and set up in the studio.

• Both machines complete a robust full draw cycle a minimum of four times before the actual draw. The Audit NZ scrutineer and two Lotto NZ reps oversee the checks.

• A contingency process is in place in the rare instance there are issues during the testing. If a machine develops a problem, it gets swapped for the other machine, which is then tested.

• If a ball is dropped during rehearsals the set is swapped out and the other set is used. The balls get verified by Audit NZ and Lotto NZ before the next draw.

• At the completion of the draw, the Audit NZ scrutineer checks and confirms the results have been correctly recorded on the Official Results Certificate.