{"id":596834,"date":"2026-09-11T06:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T06:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/596834\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T06:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T06:36:09","slug":"28-5m-lotto-winner-reveals-number-that-changed-his-life-in-seconds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/596834\/","title":{"rendered":"$28.5m Lotto winner reveals number that changed his life in seconds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gisborne<\/a>‘s newest multi-millionaire has spoken about winning Lotto’s huge $28.5 million powerball draw<\/a>, saying he would “remember that moment for a long time”. <\/p>\n

The ticket, sold at Grant Bros Homeware & Gifts, won $28 million with Powerball first division and a further $250,000 with Lotto first division on Saturday night. <\/p>\n

Now, the winner has spoken about the huge win, saying he was a “regular player who always buys the same ticket” from his local store. <\/p>\n

“I play the same kind of ticket for each draw, but I always use Powerball 7 because it has special meaning to me,” he said.<\/p>\n

On Sunday morning, unaware there had been a big win in Gisborne, the man was helping a family member at their house.<\/p>\n

“We were pottering around when another family member came in and said, ‘Did anyone get a ticket from Grant Bros. for last night\u2026 because somebody won $28 million’.” <\/p>\n

The man thought to himself “that\u2019s nice, well done to them” and carried on with what he was doing. <\/p>\n

“I said, ‘Well if the Powerball was number 7\u2026 we might be in the running you know’ \u2013 which sent one of them sprinting for their phone.<\/p>\n

“They pulled up the numbers and said ‘Look, it was Powerball 7’. That’s when the excitement really started building.”<\/p>\n

The winner took out his ticket and they checked the numbers together.<\/p>\n

“They started reading them out to me, \u20183, 14, 16, 23…\u2019 and before they could finish, I yelled, ’31 and 34!’<\/p>\n

He said everyone began screaming and hugging one another, saying he would “remember that moment for a long time”.<\/p>\n

After claiming their prize, they gathered the rest of the family to share the news.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started telling them the story of what happened earlier in the day and then stopped and said, \u2018Well anyway, twenty-eight million, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars later\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

“Seeing the expressions on my family\u2019s faces when I told them was very special,” he said.<\/p>\n

“To be able to share that moment with my whole family on Father’s Day made it even more memorable. It\u2019s something I\u2019ll never forget.”<\/p>\n

The man told Lotto NZ he was taking time to let the news sink in before making any big decisions.<\/p>\n

“I am incredibly grateful for this win. It puts me in a position to be able to help my family.<\/p>\n

“To know that they\u2019ll be looked after, that they will be set up for the future no matter what, means more than anything.”<\/p>\n

Tomorrow night’s draw is the last under the current game format<\/a> and will be a must be won draw. If no one wins Powerball First Division, the entire $10 million jackpot will roll down and be shared among players in the next division where there are winners.<\/p>\n

Tickets for the new 14-ball Powerball game go on sale from Sunday, with the first draw taking place on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gisborne‘s newest multi-millionaire has spoken about winning Lotto’s huge $28.5 million powerball draw, saying he would “remember that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,12506,111,139,69,244],"class_list":["post-596834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gisborne","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-personal-finance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}