Not a $1,300 NZ Powerball Win, it’s $13 million!

Not a $1,300 NZ Powerball Win, it’s $13 million!

Sometimes players misread just how much their ticket has won. That happened to a player from New Plymouth in New Zealand. What he thought was a $13,000 win turned out to be a $13 million NZ Powerball jackpot.

The lucky winner has asked to remain anonymous. Their win came in the June 26 draw with $12 million from the NZ Powerball First Division and $1 million from the Lotto First Division. The winning ticket was purchased from New World Merrilands. However, the winner had no idea that a ticket purchased from there had won the jackpot.

Eventually they needed to buy some groceries and had a couple of lottery tickets to check.  “I had absolutely no idea that my ticket was worth $13 million,” he said. He handed his tickets to the lady at the Lotto counter. It was his second ticket that got the terminal playing the winning music.

Blurry Eyes

“The lady looked and me and very discreetly handed me a slip of paper with $13,000,000 printed on it.I couldn’t believe it. My eyes were so blurry with tears that I couldn’t read the number properly – I thought it was $13,000 at first!I truly couldn't believe what I was seeing – even now it's still hard to believe."

After the fantastic discovery, the winner called a relative who could hardly believe what they were hearing. Some other close family members have been told, “everyone has been blown away, we are still getting our heads around it.”

Day-to-Day Stresses Gone

The NZ Powerball winner plans on “keeping life pretty similar” despite being a multi-millionaire. “I'm going to make the most of my winnings and use them to set myself and my family up for the future. It's going to make a world of difference – we feel very, very lucky.This prize will take away a lot of the day-to-day stresses. It really will make a world of difference,” the winner added.

Merrilands New World owner Luke Stock​ said the store had previously sold four winning First Division tickets, two Strike Fours, and two Instant Kiwi tickets.

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