Owner of Smith Hare & Christison Mobil Blaine Smith was pleased to have sold a winner. PHOTO/KAREN COLTMAN
KAREN COLTMAN
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A lot of Lotto prize money was spread around on Saturday, and Wairarapa wasn’t left out.
Both a First Division and Second Division prize were sold by Carterton’s Smith Hare & Christison Mobil petrol station.
The First Division win netted a lucky punter $100,000.
But like the other nine winning First Division tickets around the country it didn’t have the correct Powerball number, 1, at the end of the line.
Therefore, the massive $50 million ‘Must Be Won’ Powerball prize dropped down to Second Division where 10 of 50 winning tickets [5 out of six correct numbers, and the bonus number] had the Powerball number and collected more than $5 million each.
Wairarapa had three winning Second Division tickets, including the one sold at Smith Hare & Christison, but none had Powerball.
The other winning tickets were sold at Pain and Kershaw in Martinborough, and through the online MyLotto service to a Carterton player.
They each took home a tidy $16,368.
“It is great for the community to have sold a winning ticket and we hope it went to a local, that would be neat,” Smith Hare & Christison owner Blaine Smith said.
The First Division winning ticket had not been claimed by 3pm on Sunday.
Smith said he was certain the winner of the $100,000 would also have added Powerball to their ticket.
“Why wouldn’t you?
But it wasn’t to be.
“Many of my customers have said they think it is great that the $50 million was spread around as that would be a huge amount for one person to know what to do with,” Smith said.
Because of the ‘Must Be Won’ draw, Smith and the team had a busy week selling tickets, as did all Lotto stores. On Saturday tickets were being sold at the rate of 2000 per minute nationwide.
“We had queues on Saturday but with covid-19 spacing it looked more than it was at times. But yeah, we had a good week.”
The 10 winning Second Division Powerball tickets which will collect $5,023,999 each were sold at outlets in Auckland, Tauranga, Napier, Palmerston North and Invercargill, with five My Lotto players from Auckland completing the lucky group.
