All In The Family For Big Lotto Winners
The two Division One winning Lotto tickets on Saturday 23 August were sold at the same store – Mall Books and Lotto in
Newtown, Wellington.
“This is the first time this has happened since we introduced the Guaranteed Millionaire every week late last year,” New
Zealand Lotteries Commission Chief Executive Trevor Hall said. “We’re all very pleased for Max Maisuria and his winning
team. It’s great for them and the local community - and of course it’s good for us with our sales climbing and more
money going back to the New Zealand community overall.”
The Guaranteed Millionaire in draw 842, a lucky young couple from South Wellington, backed up this: “They’re a lovely
family; we’ve been going there since before they took over a couple of years ago,” they said. “Max gave us a bunch of
flowers and we gave him something in return for his customers.”
Mr Maisuria was delighted for his store and for the customers concerned. “We hadn’t had a big winner for 50 weeks and I
asked my wife when are we going to get one? Then this came all of a sudden,” he said.
“I know both couples very well,” Mr Maisuria continued. “They are good to us like family.”
The Guaranteed Millionaire couple, who wish to remain anonymous, said that up to now they haven’t had the money to get
married. “We were mortgaged to the hilt,” they said. “We can now get married, go freehold and start our retirement
fund.”
Meanwhile, Powerball continues to jackpot to its highest ever level – it’s an estimated $11.5 million this week – but
the Strike jackpot of a healthy $440,892 was struck by an Auckland couple at the weekend.
For the North Shore couple, who also wish to maintain their privacy, the win is life changing. They won $1200 with
Strike recently and were stunned when they won again – this time the big one.
The future for their 7-year-old daughter and themselves is now much brighter than they could have dreamed, having fallen
on financially hard times.
“Our daughter is bright and we were very concerned. Where would the money come from for her education?” They now have
the answer and are able to offer security for their family.
“It’s great to see Lotto winners benefiting like this,” Trevor Hall said. “That’s what the game’s all about. It’s also
about returning the maximum possible amount to the community. New promotional activity recently has meant good news on
the sales front. Renewed player interest has translated into combined product sales in the fourth quarter of 2002/03
$14.4 million up on the previous quarter and $2.7 million ahead of sales for the same quarter in 2001/02. We are also
over $10 million ahead of budget for the first two months of the new financial year.”