Christmas has come early for a lucky Whakatāne couple who became overnight multi-millionaires after winning $5.5 million with Powerball First Division in Saturday’s live Lotto draw.

The couple, who wish to remain anonymous, are regular MyLotto players and are now New Zealand’s latest multi-millionaires – much to their disbelief.

“I’ve always dreamed of winning Powerball – who hasn’t! I can tell you; those plans you have in your head on how you’re going to spend it definitely get scrambled when you do actually win,” laughed the man.

The man was on his laptop after Saturday’s draw and decided to log in to MyLotto and check his ticket.

“The virtual draw started, and I watched the numbers on my ticket circling until they all lined up – including the Powerball. I thought to myself ‘am I being trolled or is this really happening?’”

The man shouted to his partner to come and check – and that’s when they both saw the prize amount at the top of their ticket - $5.5 million.

“It’s just out of this world,” he said.

The couple haven’t had a chance to celebrate their win properly yet but had a small celebration that night with a couple of drinks while ‘staring at their ticket on the laptop screen.’

With their win claimed, and sleep evading them, the pair have been chatting long into the night about what to do with their win.

“We haven’t had much sleep since finding out, so we’ve spent the last couple of nights talking about what we can achieve and ways we can help with this money… that’s when I’ve managed to drag him away from online shopping,” laughed the woman.

"This is truly life-changing for us, and we just know we have to use this money to help others too – we’re grateful for this opportunity and we’re going to make the most of it,” said the man.

And what about treating themselves? “A holiday is definitely on the cards,” the couple said with big smiles.

Notes for editors:

• The winning $5.5 million Powerball First Division ticket was won by one MyLotto player from Whakatāne for the draw on Saturday 3 December.
• The $5.5 million Powerball prize is made up of $5 million from Powerball First Division and $500,000 from Lotto First Division.
• The winner would like to remain anonymous and does not wish to provide any further comment at this stage.
• This is the eighteenth Powerball First Division winner of 2022.

Powerball wins in 2022

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