Sixteen Tauranga Workmates Share $500,000 Lotto Win

A syndicate of sixteen workmates from Tauranga have been left buzzing after winning $500,000 with Lotto First Division in Saturday’s Lotto draw.

The syndicate organiser, who wishes to remain anonymous, had been buying Lotto tickets with his colleagues for almost three years before the big win.

“I pick up the syndicate tickets each week with one of my colleagues – we head down to the local Lotto shop and check the group’s tickets before buying our new ones,” explained the man.

“When we headed down to the Lotto shop this week we had a couple of tickets to check – the first one actually won $81, so we were feeling pretty happy with that!” said the man.

But their good luck wasn’t over, as the next ticket they checked saw them take home an even bigger win.

“The Lotto operator congratulated us and said we’d won half a million dollars with Lotto First Division. I just couldn’t believe it – my hands started shaking straight away,” laughed the man.

Still buzzing with news of the big win, the pair hatched a plan to share the exciting news to the rest of the syndicate.

“When we got back to work I secretly printed out an A3 copy of the claim receipt with $500,000 written on it, then called a meeting for the syndicate members,” said the man.

“Everyone gathered in the board room and I opened the meeting by going over the rules as there were a few people had just joined the syndicate recently. It was then that I noticed a few people had gone very quiet, and I could tell that they had started to click that something was going on.

“That’s when I unfolded the A3 paper in the middle of the table and said, ‘oh – and we’ve just won $500,000!’ The room just erupted with joy – everyone went nuts! There were plenty of hugs and high fives in the board room that day,” laughed the man.

That evening after work the sixteen workmates celebrated over beers and chatted about how they planned to spend their share of the winnings.

“With sixteen people in the group there are lots of big life milestones coming up – one person has a baby on the way, another is getting married soon, just to name a few.

“This win is going to make a real difference to so many people – being able to share this win with my workmates is incredibly special. It’s just awesome.”

There have been several major Lotto NZ prizes won by syndicates around the country over the years including a group of ten lucky women who won $30 million with Powerball First Division in 2017 on a ticket bought in Taupo, and a Te Kuiti work syndicate who picked up a $1 million Lotto First Division prize that same year.

The winning ticket was sold at Paper Plus Mount Maunganui In Tauranga for the draw Saturday 5 June.

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