Lotto NZ Tracks Down $500,000 Winner Who Had Lost Ticket

Scoop

9 hours ago

A Lotto winner who lost their paper ticket and was unaware they had won big has received their $500,000 First Division prize after Lotto NZ sought help from the player's bank to track them down.
The winning ticket was sold at Pak n Save Mt Albert in June last year but no winner came forward.
With prize claims only valid for 12 months and the clock ticking down, the Government-operated lottery looked for clues about how they could find their winner.
'Our only real lead was that the ticket was paid for with an ASB card,' says Lotto NZ Head of Corporate Communications, Will Hine.
'We had electronic details of the transaction but no idea who the card actually belonged to, because that information isn't visible to retailers.'
'We knew ASB would be unable to give us their customer's details for privacy reasons, so instead asked them to pass on a confidential message to their customer that they might want to contact the Lotto NZ winner's team.'
The bank helped out and the customer then got in touch with Lotto NZ.
The winner, who wished to remain anonymous, says she had low expectations about receiving a prize.
'In the country I grew up in you would have to have a lottery ticket to claim a prize and I realised I must have lost my one. So I didn't think we'd get given the prize.'
Because the ticket had been lost, Lotto NZ went through a very detailed process to determine the rightful winner, including examining the customer's purchasing history.
It concluded that she had bought the winning ticket, and paid the $500,000 prize several weeks ahead of the prize's 12-month expiration date.
The woman says she and her husband are planning to use some of the money to bring family members to Aotearoa for a holiday.
'We want to take them to see the snow this winter. We think we'll go to Queenstown and also Rotorua.'
"When I got the news about being paid out, I couldn't sleep," the winner shared. "This money means we can save for a better life for ourselves and our family. We're incredibly happy.'
Hine says it was a fantastic result for the customer.
'We were absolutely delighted we were able to pay this customer her prize. She was quite emotional when we met up with her and her husband was over the moon as well.
'While any prize money that is unclaimed after 12 months goes back to our wider pool of money for future prize promotions, obviously we always prefer that it reaches the rightful winner where possible.
'If we get sufficient information that allows us to be sure we've found the correct winner, then a prize will be paid.
'We always recommend players write their name on the back of their ticket, in case it's lost and then found.'