Lotto Powerball rolls over: $25.5 million up for grabs on Saturday

Lotto players will be chasing a bigger prize on Saturday after there were no jackpot winners tonight.

The Lotto balls did not fall kindly for those hoping to win the $20 million jackpot tonight, which means it will soar this weekend to a combined prize pool of $25.5m.

Tonight’s Lotto numbers for the big draw are 26, 8, 14, 19, 23 and 13.

The bonus ball was 6 and the Powerball number was 3.

There have been several substantial wins in the national lottery this year, most recently when someone in Wairoa - among parts of Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti Gisborne devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle this year - won $10.3m.

The winner, who the Herald understands is a solo mum, told media in a statement through the New Zealand Lotteries Commission that it had been a year filled with challenges, so her family was thankful and “looking forward to the future”.

A Christchurch couple’s lives were also changed this year when they won $33.5m in a late June draw.

The woman checked her ticket after an evening of doing chores, and quickly found herself struggling to breathe.

“My husband had already gone to bed so I woke him up and said, ‘Can you please check this for me? These numbers are dancing on the paper.

“‘Is it actually real?’”