The New Zealand Lotto draw on Wednesday 19th of September 2018 saw 40 tickets win Lotto 1st division. The excitement of those 40 people would have quickly faded as they learned they had to share 1 million with 39 others and they actually won $25,000! Having so many winners in one draw is highly unlikely, with over 30 winners in one draw having only happened once before since Lotto began.
So what are the chances of winning in Lotto?
With the New Zealand Lotto game, the big prize in is Powerball. To hit this, you first have to win first division by having all 6 numbers on one line of your ticket drawn out before the bonus ball. Then you also have to get the winning Powerball number, which is numbered between one and 10.
The odds of any one six-number line winning first division is about one in 3.8 million.
The odds of getting the six-number line, plus the Powerball number, to win Powerball is about one in 38 million. Of course every line you play increases your chances, so the odds go back to about one in 3.8m for a $15 Power Dip with 10 lines of Lotto Powerball.
In comparison to those odds, you have a better chance of giving birth to identical quadruplets (if you are pregnant), flipping a coin on heads 28 times in a row, drowning in your bath, being killed by a vending machine or being related to the Queen than scooping the jackpot.
However, people obviously do hit the winning numbers!
And here are some number that might help! Numbers 1, 18, 13, 7, 19 and 12 are the most drawn Lotto numbers, while 2 is the most frequently drawn Powerball number.