Rotorua's Lotto punters keen for possible $42m win

Westend Dairy owners Jaymesh and Alpana Kumar. Photo / Ben Fraser

Rotorua's Lotto shops are gearing up for a busy day today, with the Lotto Powerball jackpot up to a whopping $42 million - the second highest in the history of Lotto.

Raj Kumar, the owner of Springfield Superette and Lotto, said it had been "extremely" busy over the last few days.

"A lot of people [are buying tickets] especially tradies ... We're seeing a different set of people," he said.

He said usually when the jackpot got up to around $10m or $20m, the number of people who bought a ticket would go up as well but it wasn't usual to see many people shopping for Lotto on their lunch break.

While some people were spending large amounts in one go, this was because they were buying the ticket for a syndicate, Kumar said.

"A lot of people put their money together - behind one person spending $1000 could be 20 people," he said.

"There are more people standing behind them than what it seems ... especially now we're getting to the end where it must be won."

Kumar said while most people said $42m was "quite obscene" for a single person to win, they also said they wouldn't mind so much if it was them who won it alone.

People are spending more at the moment than they usually would, he said, with "90 per cent" of customers saying they would spend the money on their mother if they won.

Westend Dairy owner Alpana Kumar said business had been picking up over the past few days and she expected them to be really busy today. "At the last minute it usually picks up. Customers all want the winning ticket."

The dairy sold a first division winning ticket in 2018.

Purdeep Singh, a worker at Rotorua's Lucky Lotto, said they were expecting an influx of customers as the deadline for sales loomed.

"We're still busy, but it will be busier," she said.

She wasn't sure how exactly how many people had bought tickets since Sunday.

With a jackpot on this scale, she said, they could possibly expect up to 20,000 Powerball tickets to be sold today.

Marie Winfield, Lotto NZ head of communications said there were 26 Lotto outlets in Rotorua.

Countdown Rotorua had the most First Division wins in Rotorua, she said, having sold winning tickets twice since 2001. Springfield Superette and Lotto had sold the largest win in one go, with the Powerball being struck in 2015 to the tune of $24m.

Winfield said online MyLotto sales were also increasing.

Over Sunday and Monday this week, they had sold around 110,000 Lotto Family tickets nationally on MyLotto, she said.

"Some people like the convenience of buying tickets online, while others like to have that golden tickets in their hands," she said.

"With Powerball jackpotting to one of the highest amounts we have ever seen, excitement is certainly building."