• Over half of each week’s Lotto tickets are bought on a Saturday and, of these, around 25% are bought between 5.00pm and 7.00pm.
• The largest number of Division One winners for one draw was 38 - this happened on 11 September 1993 and each of the winners received $35,937.
• The smallest number of Division Two winners for one draw was 2 and first happened on 31 October 1987 and each of the winners received $45,506.
• The most popular types of Lotto tickets purchased are Triple Dips and self-selected tickets (“own numbers”), which each make up approx 30% of tickets purchased.
• Since it began on 1 August, 1987 more than $3.75 billion has been paid out in Lotto prize money to 63.4 million winners.
• Powerball’s first draw was on 17 February 2001. More than $432.4 million in prize money has been paid to over 1.12 million winners since Powerball began.
• Strike’s first draw was on 3 April, 1993. Since then $504 million has been won on more than 87.8 million Strike tickets.
• 374 people have won $1 million or more from Lotto alone. There have been 94 Powerball millionaires, and 13 Strike millionaires.
• No ticket type is inherently “luckier” than another. The big division one prizes are shared fairly evenly between ticket types according to their proportion of sales.
• Strike Four can jackpot for nine weeks. If the 10th draw is not won, the prize pool is shared by that week's Strike Three winners.
• Lotto's Winning Wheel has created thirteen millionaires since it started on 21 August 2004. The first winner was from Whakatane in September 2005, the second from Dunedin in November 2005, the third in September 2006 by a man from Auckland and the fourth in November 2006 by a Nelson man. A syndicate of eight workmates from New Plymouth struck the million on 28 July 2007, Wanganui local John Lawrence won a million on 26 January 2008, Reuben Elliot spun and won $1 million for his grandfather Lionel in April 2008, Dale Peckham spun $1 million in July, Levin local Mariana Hunt won $1 million in November, Arfon Williams won a $1 million in March 2009, Pamela Cooper from Auckland won in August, and Gisborne man Alastair Jenkins was the most recent $1 million winner in September.
• On Saturday 24 May, 2008, the Winning Wheel had its 200th spinner on the live draw.
• In its first full year of operating 1987-1988 $64.5 million was won on Lotto prizes. In the financial year 2007/2008 this figure had risen to $274,152,814 for prizes won on all Lotto family games.
• Lotto celebrated its 20th Birthday on Saturday 25 August with $5.5 million in extra prizes on offer including three prizes of $1 million and 10 prizes of $250,000. The three millionaires were in Auckland, Foxton and Lower Hutt.
• From 28th October 2007, the minimum Lotto Powerball First Division Prize is $3 million and Powerball players can now choose their Powerball number from between 1 and 10, rather than the previous 1 and 8.
• The largest combined Lotto and Powerball prize won by a single ticket was $22,434,379 – this comprised of $22,206,973 from Powerball First Division and $227,406 from Lotto First Division.
• Draw 1115 on Saturday 18 October 2008 was the first 'Must Be Won' draw at the $30 million threshold. With no First Division Powerball winners, the prize rolled down to the Second Division Powerball winners. The five winners from Auckland (2), Wellington (2) and Reefton won a total of $6,169,014 - made up of a $6,146,881 share of Powerball, plus a $22,133 share of Lotto's Second Division.
• The highest individual Strike prize of $1,764,676 was won by an Auckland family in November 2008.
• In Jan-Feb 2010, there was a remarkable run of four Powerballs being won in four weeks in a row,
