Lotto Powerball $34 million: Have you bought a ticket for tonight's draw?

Powerball has been running since 2001, with a total of 191 people winning the Lotto game. Photo / File

It has been a good year for Lotto players in New Zealand - with 28 Kiwis made overnight millionaires already and seven Powerball multi-millionaires too.

And the second-largest Powerball prize in Lotto New Zealand history is up for grabs tonight, a flabbergasting $34 million.

Powerball has been running since 2001 and the largest ever prize was claimed in 2016 when a Hibiscus Coast couple won $44.1m.

The biggest Powerball prize this year, a $50m must-be-won draw, was shared between two separate winners in February.

After paying off mortgages, the most common theme among winners is to help their families, friends and charities.

An Auckland couple who bagged $5.3m in May 2019 dished out $100,000 to each of their family members following the win.

Lotto NZ first started in 1987 - the same year the All Blacks won the first-ever Rugby World Cup - and celebrated its 33rd birthday on Saturday.

Since its inception, a total of 943 people have become millionaires through Lotto NZ games.

Players have been known to hide their winning tickets in all sorts of places, from being taped to their bodies to inside pianos to underneath their bed pillow.

Meanwhile, in the 19 years since Powerball has been running, a total of 191 Kiwis have experienced the life-changing moment of winning the game.

Earlier this year, two players, one from Auckland and the other Hawke's Bay, shared February's historic $50m must-be-won draw - a tidy $25.1m each.

All profits generated through Lotto NZ are put back into the community, with the organisation supporting more than 3000 causes countrywide.

Between August 1, 1987, and June 30, 2019, more than $4.6 billion was donated to charities and community groups through Lotto NZ.

Lotto winning facts:

• The most frequently drawn Powerball number is 2, which has been drawn 170 times.

• The country's northernmost Powerball winner was based in Taipa, Northland, who won $5m in May 2019.

• Meanwhile, the southernmost Powerball winner was from Invercargill, Southland, who won $20m in 2013.

• The most common thing winners spend their money on, or claim to spend it on, is on their mortgage or a new house.