$30 Million Powerball Winner Turns Out To Be Family Syndicate

There are many ways for people to gamble their money if they chose too. People often play at online casinos - including the even more modern crypto casinos - but there is still lots of value in real world methods of gambling, like participating in the lottery. Though, this is also an area that has largely moved online, so much so that Woolworths was forced to shut down some of its lottery stores because of the increase in online lottery ticket sales. However, it doesn’t matter where you buy these tickets, you have an equal chance of winning.

And now, New Zealand has witnessed the biggest jackpot win of 2024 when a player won the $30 million Powerball jackpot. It has been revealed that the winner is not one person but a family syndicate. They also won an additional $166,667 from Lotto First Division, making their total prize money the biggest jackpot win of 2024 until now.

Along with this winner, five others shared the Lotto First Division win, pocketing $166,667 each. The outlets that sold the winning tickets were:

Waimauku Mini Mart in Waimauku
Pacific Superette in Auckland
Pak N Save Ormiston in Auckland

The remaining two players were from Waikato and bought their winning tickets directly from MyLotto.

While initial reports suggested that the Powerball winner was from Carterton, Lotto later clarified that the winner was actually from Wellington.

Occasional Punters

Confirming the news that the family syndicate was the winner, MyLotto issued a statement stating that the family members were not regular players; they were, in fact, ‘occasional’ players who bought a ticket only when the jackpot value went higher than $20 million.

Talking about the win, the person who bought the ticket said that he saw news of the jackpot being won the previous night but didn’t have even the slightest idea that his family had won. He came to know they were the lucky winners only after receiving an e-mail from MyLotto conveying the news.

However, he did not immediately check the ticket on his own. Instead, he reached out to his entire family and asked them to come over. His explanation was that he wanted them all together to see what they had won because they had, after all, won it as a family.

Complete Shock and Disbelief

Once the family got together, they opened the e-mail to check that the winning numbers matched what was on their ticket. The numbers were 11, 14, 20, 31, 33 and 36 – a match of course. The bonus ball was 26 and the Powerball was 2.

There was complete shock and disbelief when they saw the lucky numbers in the e-mail and realized they had actually won the full jackpot amount of $30 million.

The buyer of the ticket said they couldn’t believe that it was actually true, the whole win, and one couldn’t blame them for it. Apparently, they just stared at each other in shock, barely able to talk except a dazed and wonderstruck ‘What?’ and a ‘How.’

Plans Post Winning the Jackpot

The jackpot winner said they had never thought they would end up winning such a massive prize, and therefore had no plans made earlier of how to spend it. His son, in fact, had decided – before they checked the ticket – to buy him and his wife a new bed.

He said the win was a delightful shock and they were still trying to process it and come to terms with the fact that they were now in possession of what was a life-changing win. Not just that, they actually woke up that morning all set to go to work, as usual.

On being asked what they intended to do with the prize money he said they didn’t plan too many drastic changes to their lives. He said, “We have lived a modest life … we know what it’s like to go through hard times, so this win will make all of our lives that bit easier.”

When asked if his family had a wish list of things to do with the win, he said, “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.” Plans were there, however, he said, including a bit of travel for the family and renovations to the house. And of course, the king-sized bed, not to mention some contributions to charities.

Lotto Millionaires in New Zealand

The $30 million win is the 15th time that a player from New Zealand has racked up a million-dollar win in 2024. So far this year, the Powerball has been hit four times. This is the biggest win for 2024; the previous highest wins this year were:

$17.25 million, won by a player from Canterbury on 27th January, 2024
$12.3 million, won by a player from Otago on 2nd March
$8.3 million, won by a player from Hawke’s Bay on 10th February

The biggest lotto win of all time was in 2020, when 10 players shared a prize of $50 million. That same year, in February, 2 players from Auckland shared a $50 million payout—one bought his ticket at Countdown Manukau City Mall while the other purchased it online.

Another massive win was registered in 2016 when a couple from Hibiscus Coast, Auckland, took home a prize of $44 million off a ticket that they had bought at the Dairy Flat Food Mart. There was a big win in October 2021 as well, when a family from Pokeno took home a $42.1 million jackpot.