The New Zealand lottery is one of the biggest events in the country and boasts a sizeable prize pool of NZ$ 1 million. While the event occurs once a week, there are three other draws and they are known as Big Wednesday, Keno – which occurs twice daily - and Bullseye. Recently the New Zealand Lotteries Commission introduced a new game called Play3 along with a variety of scratch card games referred to as Instant Kiwi. With every lotto ticket purchase, there are additional extras such as Powerball and Lotto Strike. As is clearly evident, the New Zealand lotto is a big deal and one that has to date, since its inception back in 1987, donated more than $3.6 billion to the grants board of the lottery and that cash has been dispersed to institutions like Sport New Zealand, Creative New Zealand and the New Zealand Film Commission.
The NZ Lotto is the original Saturday night lottery game for Kiwi players, with the very first draw with a top prize of $359,808 held on 1 August, 1987. The main lotto game is broadcast every Saturday night at 8pm and entails six balls and one bonus ball drawn from a 40 ball machine. In order to win the main prize, players need to have marked all six numbers on the same line in accordance with what the machine pops out.
Players can either select their own numbers or they can opt for randomly issued numbers from the machine by way of the Lotto Dip. After four weeks if no one has won the prize, then in the 5th week the draw becomes a must-win draw.
Introduced in 1993, the Lotto Strike lets players add 4 numbers with the aim being to match the selected numbers in the exact order with the first 4 drawn numbers. The minimum jackpot for this one is NZ$100 000 and will increase by that amount up until it is won. While the jackpot is awarded for 4 matching numbers in this add-on Kiwi Lotto game, if you match just one, two or three of the first four Lotto balls, you’ll also be a winner, provided that they’re in exactly the same order drawn.
Introduced in 2001, the Powerball requires the purchasing of at least four Powerball numbers per ticket. The Powerball number is drawn from a different machine with numbers numbering between 1 and 10. The winning numbers for Powerball are drawn using two different ball pools, and the resulting seven numbers are the main result for the New Zealand Lotto. Should a player get the winning Powerball number on same the line as that of the winning lotto, then he or she will receive the main lotto winnings along with a share of the Powerball’s prize pool.
Another favourite lottery game of Kiwi players is Instant Kiwi scratchies. These NZ scratch cards are easy to play, affordable to purchase and offer substantial prizes to boot. Instant Kiwi scratchies also come in various themes and forms, ranging from fun crosswords to Fully Loaded scratch cards and more. All players need to do is purchase their tickets, scratch away their lucky places on the card and take a chance at winning top jackpots that often exceed $1 million!
Bullseye is by far one of the most popular Lotto games available to New Zealand players. Bullseye is a simple game, which will appeal to both lottery beginners and seasoned winners alike. In the game, you simply need to choose your lucky number from 000,000 to 999,999. The closer your chosen number is to the number drawn for that day, the more you can win! With a price of $2 per game, NZ players can win over $100,000 each day with this quintessentially Kiwi game.
This is quite an interesting addition to the New Zealand lottery and has to do with the serial number issued with each and every lottery ticket. This 16-digit number gets drawn as well and the winner gets an all-expenses paid trip to the actual studio at which the lotto is hosted to appear on the show to spin the wheel for a prize. While the Winning Wheel received its final farewell on July 4, 2015, it was soon replaced by a new-look draw that reveals winning numbers, making more Kiwi players rich with every game.
