Wellington Family Syndicate Wins Life-changing $30.16 Million

A family from Wellington have become New Zealand’s newest multi-millionaires after winning a life-changing $30.16 million at the weekend.

The mammoth prize is the largest prize won by a single ticket since August 2023, when a Paraparaumu couple won $37.125 million.

The family syndicate, who wish to remain anonymous, are occasional players, who buy a ticket together whenever the jackpot is over $20 million.

“When I bought the ticket, my daughter-in-law transferred their portion of the ticket to me straight away, she told me she ‘didn’t want to owe me anything,’” laughed the man.

Later that night the family saw on the news that Powerball had been won in Carterton, so thought nothing further of checking their ticket.

“I don’t usually check my tickets until I’m going to buy another one, so it could have been more than a month before I even looked!” Said the man.

The next day, the man was checking his emails when he saw one from MyLotto Customer Support.

“It said I had won a major prize, but I didn’t know what that meant.”

The man decided to wait until the family was together, before checking their ticket.

“I messaged them and told them to come round. Whatever we had won, I wanted us to find out together as a family,” he said.

Before logging in to the MyLotto App, the family discussed what they might have won and what they would do with the money.

The man’s son decided that if they had won a few thousand, he’d treat himself and his wife to a king size bed… little did he know he’d be able to buy a fair few king size beds after they checked their ticket!

The family watched as the animated draw played, and the numbers on their ticket circled one by one. Suddenly they heard the winning music, and their ticket was stamped ‘$30,166,667’ at the top.

Conflicting emotions ensued – absolute elation mixed with complete disbelief at what they were seeing.

“We really didn’t think it was real – why would you? We were so shocked and just kept staring at each other saying ‘what?’ ‘How?’

“How could it be us when the news said the winner was from Carterton?” Said the man.

The man’s son checked his Dad’s settings, and sure enough, his town was set as Carterton.

“All I can think is that I accidentally put Carterton when I signed up to MyLotto.”

The family are still coming to terms with their win, but plan to keep themselves grounded – all still heading to work on Monday morning knowing they were multi-millionaires.

“We’ve lived a modest life, and we don’t plan to change our lives drastically.

“We know what it’s like to go through hard times, so this win will make all of our lives that bit easier,” the man said.

Celebrations are still in discussion and there have already been lots of chats about what they might do with their win.

“You always dream of winning Powerball, and in your head, you’ve mapped out what you’ll do, but it’s so different when you actually win.

“We’re going to do some renovations and we know that we’d like to do some travel as a family. It’s also important to us to help the charities and causes that are close to our hearts, so we’ll do that down the track too,” said the man.

And of course, the man’s son and daughter-in-law are going straight out to buy a new king size bed!

Notes:

• The winning $30.16 million Powerball First Division ticket was sold on MyLotto for the draw on Saturday 13 April.
• The $30.16 million Powerball prize is made up of $30 million from Powerball First Division and $166,667 from Lotto First Division.
• The winners would like to remain anonymous and do not wish to provide any further comment at this stage.
• This is the fourth Powerball First Division winner of 2024.
• This Powerball prize is the eighth biggest prize of all time (see below table.)
• This Powerball prize is the biggest prize ever won on MyLotto.

Powerball wins in 2024

Top 10 biggest prizes of all time

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