Help and FAQ

Any member of the public, tourists, foreign students, residents, and non-residents can play and win with NZ Lotteries products.

NZ Lotteries was established as a Crown Entity in 1987 for the purpose of raising money for community activities and projects. NZ Lotteries' current product range is: Lotto, Lotto Strike, Powerball, Winning Wheel, Big Wednesday, Bullseye, Keno, and Instant Kiwi.

There is no age limit for playing Lotto, Big Wednesday, Bullseye or Keno. However, any player under 18-years-old claiming a prize of more than $1,000 must have a Parent/Guardian Acknowledgement Form completed.

Each year, NZ Lotteries transfers its profits to the New Zealand Lottery Grants Board . This organisation makes grants to sport, arts, film, and community organisations for a wide range of activities and projects. Since NZ Lotteries started, we have transferred over $2 billion to the Lottery Grants Board.

The Department of Consumer Affairs has a large list of known scams, as well as a section on their website called Scam Watch. They can be contacted on (04) 474 2750, or check out their website at www.consumeraffairs.govt.nz. Remember: if you didn’t buy a ticket, it’s a scam. Also, no official lottery requires winners to send them money in order to be paid their prize.

Contact the Department of Internal Affairs on 0800 257 887.

Contact the Lottery Grants Board on: 0800 824 824, or visit their website at www.cdgo.govt.nz. You can apply on-line, or they will send you an application form.

If you enter your password incorrectly three times, your login will be suspended. You can reset your password by visiting mylotto.co.nz and clicking on the ‘Forgotten your password? Click here’ link in the top left of your screen. This will take you to a page where you will be required to enter your date of birth and answer security questions. If all the answers are correct, a temporary password will be sent to your registered email address.

The printed tickets are a copy of the online tickets for your own records only and cannot be checked in store. However, you are able to check them in your MyLotto account.

Login to your MyLotto account and click on the My Account tab. Then select the My Profile option from the menu and the Communications tab and tick the ‘No thanks’ button.

No. All withdrawals must be to your nominated NZ bank account.

You will need a New Zealand bank account and a New Zealand issued Visa or MasterCard. If you don’t have a New Zealand issued Visa or MasterCard, you will need to send us a copy of two of the following forms of ID:

• Passport
• New Zealand Drivers Licence
• Firearms Licence
• New Zealand Birth Certificate
• New Zealand Marriage Certificate
• Document evidencing a bank account in your name (e.g. deposit slip)
• New Zealand issued International Drivers Licence

You may use a joint bank account as long as you are one of the named account holders and the bank account number has not been used by another active MyLotto account.

The back button functionality is not supported by the MyLotto application.

Unless you have confirmed your purchase after clicking ‘Buy Now’ already, the transaction would not have been completed hence all progress will be lost. You can check by looking under the My Tickets section of My Account to see if your latest purchase has appeared.

No. After you have confirmed your ticket purchase you can not cancel the ticket.

Yes, tickets purchased on MyLotto will be entered into any promotion which is running in - store , provided the tickets purchased meet the promotion entry requirements where specified (for example, a Triple Dip purchase was required for entry into the Lotto Mother’s Day promotion).

Set spending limits are designed to promote responsible online gambling. While NZ Lotteries has set a maximum spend limit of $150 per week and up to $300 per month, it is important that you make sure you do not spend more on lottery games than you personally can afford. Setting your own spending limit lower than the system maximum gives you more control over how much you spend and ensures that you do not go over your budget. If you reach your maximum spending limit consecutively over a period of four months, NZ Lotteries will be in contact with you to ensure that you are comfortable with your level of spending. Further information on responsible game play is available elsewhere on this website.

For the Lotto, Powerball and Strike prize divisions and odds of winning, click here

For Big Wednesday prize divisions and odds of winning, click here

For Keno prize examples and odds of winning, click here

For Bullseye prize examples and odds of winning, click here

You will find the option to turn Step by Step help off permanently in the My Profile section of My Account. Simply click the ‘Change Details’ button and tick the box at the bottom of the screen. You can turn this feature back on anytime by un-ticking the box.

A notification is sent to your account messages inbox as well as an email to your registered email address if you win a prize $1,001 or over. If you login straight after the draw, you can use the check ticket button which is found on the ticket details screen.

If you deposited funds using a credit card, this will appear in your MyLotto account as soon as you complete the transaction and you can purchase tickets straight away. However, if you deposited funds using internet or phone banking, this will take one to three days working days to appear in your MyLotto account.

Any money withdrawn from your MyLotto account can take one to three working days before appearing in your bank account. If the money withdrawn does not show in your account after three working days, call the friendly MyLotto Customer Support Team on 0800 MyLotto (6956886).

There are several organisations who can provide information and help for people who think they, or someone close to them, may have a gambling problem. Contact details for these organisations can be found here.

The Lotto draw is screened on TV2, at 8pm on Saturdays. The Big Wednesday draw is screened on TV1, at approximately 8.20pm on Wednesdays. Keno results are screened on TV2 at around 1.50pm and 6.50pm daily. The results for these games, plus Bullseye, are also published on our website, at all lottery outlets, and in many major newspapers. The latest results for Lotto, Big Wednesday, Bullseye and Keno are also available by phoning 0900 90 900 (calls cost 99c per minute). Please allow 30 minutes immediately after a draw for results to be updated.

The Winning Wheel results are screened during the Lotto draw on TV2, at 8pm on Saturdays. The results are also available at all lottery outlets, in many major newspapers, and on our website's Lotto Results page.

Lotto Powerball is now bigger and better, with the minimum First Division jackpot increasing from $1 million to start from a massive $3 million. To enable this, the number of Powerball numbers is increasing from 8 to 10 numbers. This is likely to mean larger jackpots.

Powerball will remain 50 cents per line, with a minimum of four lines necessary to play the game.

Powerball is New Zealand’s biggest jackpotting game, but the previous week one minimum prize of $1 million was lower than that of Big Wednesday (which offers $2 million plus two luxury cars). By raising the minimum First Division prize to $3 million, Powerball confirms its position as the biggest jackpotting game in New Zealand from week one.

Increasing the number of Powerball balls from 8 to 10 means that the odds of winning First Division will increase from 1 in 31 million to 1 in 38 million. This in turn should result in larger jackpots.

The new Powerball coupons have 8 boards rather than 10 which means that any customer who wants to play all ten numbers will need to complete two Powerball coupons with a minimum of four boards completed on each coupon.

Click here for How to Play Lotto Powerball

Or download our Lotto Powerball changes Frequently Asked Questions pdf from here:

Fact Sheets and Q & As

Prize division information for all NZ Lotteries games is available at all lottery outlets and on our website. Check out the following links for:

Lotto Prize Divisions

Big Wednesday Prize Divisions

Keno Prize Examples

Bullseye Prize Examples

The prize value depends on how many people win in each division, so this varies from week to week.

Yes, if your ticket is entered into the Lotto draw, it is also entered into the Winning Wheel draw. The weekly Winning Wheel winning ticket is drawn from the serial numbers of every ticket entered into that week's draw, irrespective of when the tickets were purchased. If you buy a ticket for 10 Lotto draws, you will also be entered into all 10 corresponding Winning Wheel draws. There have been two occasions in which multi-draw tickets have been drawn as the Winning Wheel serial number; firstly in draw 1024, on January 20 2007 and secondly in draw 1044 on June 9 2007. This also applies for multidraw Big Wednesday tickets - the serial number is entered into all corresponding Big Wednesday Second Chance Draws.

Copies of the NZ Lotteries 'Public Information Folder' are kept by all lottery outlets, and you can ask to see one at any time. This folder contains the prize structure for all current Instant Kiwi games and a list of expiry dates for Instant Kiwi prize claims. Up-to-the-minute information on the number of prizes in each game, and the number of prizes yet to be won, is available by asking the operator to print out a report from the terminal.

If the prize is $1000 or less, a tune will play on the terminal and the screen will show you how much you’ve won. The operator will pay you the prize and provide a prize receipt. If the prize is $1001 or more, the tune will play and the screen will show “Congratulations”. The operator will fill out a Prize Claim Form with you, give you a copy, and mail the form and ticket to NZ Lotteries to be processed. You should receive your prize by cheque or direct credit (whichever you nominate), within five working days, depending on the speed of the mail service.

The prizes are converted into cash, and the ticket holders are given equal shares of the total prize amount.

Take a photocopy of your ticket for your own records, then write your name and address on the back of the original ticket and send it to: Prize Claims, NZ Lotteries Commission, PO Box 3145, Wellington, New Zealand. If you have won a prize, a cheque will then be sent to the address you provided.

Winning NZ Lotteries tickets are eligible to claim prizes for 12 months from the date of the draw for which they were purchased. Instant Kiwi prizes can be claimed up to 12 months from the closing date of the game. Any prizes unclaimed after this date are returned to the prize pool for use in future promotions.

NZ Lotteries tickets are made of thermal paper, which will turn black if exposed to strong heat. Avoid leaving tickets near heat sources (such as ovens) or in direct sunlight (such as on your car dashboard) for long periods. Damaged or worn coupons are hard for the terminals to read. Protect them in a coupon wallet, available at all lottery outlets for a small fee.

Lottery outlets have Lost/Damaged/Stolen Ticket forms that can be sent to our claims department. The more information you can provide, such as date and time of purchase, the better the chance that we can help.

The Lotto and Big Wednesday draws are conducted at the TV studio in Avalon. Independent scrutineers from Audit New Zealand, and our own staff set up the studio and check that all the necessary equipment, processes and procedures are in place and working smoothly. A technical rehearsal is conducted using a set of dummy balls that have no numbers on them, and a dress rehearsal is conducted next, using numbered balls. The Audit NZ scrutineers are present and watching all the time.

The winning numbers are randomly selected by one of two ball drawing machines. When not in use, the machines and balls are kept in sealed, double-locked security cabinets. An NZ Lotteries representative tosses a coin to decide which of the draw machines will be used and the same method is used to decide which set of balls will be used. Prior to using a draw machine, scrutineers from Audit New Zealand check that the seal is intact to confirm that the machines and balls have not been tampered with. Each set of balls is regularly washed and weighed to confirm that all the balls are identical. Audit New Zealand officials witness the washing and weighing of the ball sets.

How do you know which tickets have won prizes?

Once the numbers have been drawn and the scrutineer from Audit New Zealand has confirmed that the draw was conducted correctly, they are entered into NZ Lotteries central computer systems. One of three computers searches through all the tickets for that draw and identifies which tickets have winning numbers on them. The other two computers are backup systems and can process draw results if there is any problem. Information about all transactions on the three computers is logged, including all instructions and information requests entered by the computer operators at NZ Lotteries. The computers are housed in separate video-monitored secure premises that require PIN numbers, mechanical keys, and electronic transponders to gain access.

NZ Lotteries centralised computers do not accept any entries for that week’s draw after 7pm on Saturday for Lotto, and 7.30pm on Wednesday for Big Wednesday. After these times, confirmation is sent to the draw scrutineers that the central computers have been “locked down” and cannot accept any more entries for that draw. The scrutineers must be satisfied that all the correct processes have been followed before they will allow a draw to proceed.

Are NZ Lotteries staff allowed to play NZ Lotteries games?

As you can see from How the Lotto and Big Wednesday Draws are conducted, there are very secure and robust processes in place to ensure that draws are conducted with complete integrity. NZ Lotteries staff are permitted to play our games – because the processes and procedures used are so secure and robust.

The Department of Internal Affairs and Audit New Zealand have approved the processes and procedures used for all NZ Lotteries draws and for the 20 years that NZ Lotteries has been

Every day at 6pm a number from 000,000 to 999,999 will be drawn at random by NZ Lotteries. The number is drawn by NZ lotteries' gaming system random number generator. This draw process has been approved by Audit NZ.

Keno numbers are drawn using a random number generating computer, which is fully automated and kept in a secure environment. The integrity of our random number generator has been audited and confirmed by a number of independent parties, including Audit New Zealand and the Department of Internal Affairs.