Two online players have each pocketed $5.03 million after Saturday night's Powerball Must Be Won Draw rolled down from First Division — one ticket sold to a Wellington player, the other to someone in the Tasman region.
Neither ticket matched all the Powerball First Division requirements, so the jackpot cascaded to Second Division, splitting a combined pool between the pair. Each prize breaks down as $5,014,323 from Powerball First and Second Division combined, plus $13,353 from Lotto Second Division — a total of $5,027,676 per winner. Both tickets were purchased through MyLotto.
Saturday's draw (draw 2620, Saturday September 12) delivered wins up and down the country. Two separate Lotto First Division prizes of $500,000 were also struck — one ticket sold at Sweet Lotto Centre in Auckland, the other through MyLotto to a Dunedin player.
A Christchurch player hit Strike Four on MyLotto, taking home $200,000.
Twenty-eight players shared Lotto Second Division prizes of $13,353 each. The winning tickets came from stores and online purchases spread across Auckland, Papamoa, Whanganui, Nelson, Tasman, Marlborough, the West Coast, Westport, Christchurch, Leeston and West Melton. Nine of the Tasman wins were through MyLotto alone. Westport's Dennis Bookshop and Leeston's Fresh Choice also featured — a reminder that Second Division doesn't play favourites with geography.
Anyone who bought a ticket from one of the winning stores is urged to check it in-store, on MyLotto, or through the MyLotto app.
One other note worth flagging for regular players: tickets for the new 14-ball Powerball game are now on sale, with the first draw under the new format taking place this Wednesday September 16.
For context on just how busy 2026 has been for Powerball, Saturday's two wins were the 16th and 17th Powerball prizes paid out this year. The biggest so far was a $28.6 million win split between two tickets in the June 3 draw — one sold at Four Square Netherby in Ashburton, the other online. A $28.25 million prize followed in the September 5 draw, won through Grant Bros. in Gisborne. By any measure, it has been an expensive year for the jackpot pool.
Lotto NZ returns 100% of its profits to New Zealand communities through lottery grants programmes run by the NZ Lottery Grants Board.