Wairoa’s huge $10.3m lotto prize has been claimed.
Residents of the Hawke’s Bay town have had their fingers crossed the lucky winner is a local.
“We’re all wishing it was going to be a local from Wairoa - that’s all we wish for,” Michele Lynch, the store lotto manager at New World Wairoa, which sold Saturday’s winning powerball ticket, told the NZ Herald.
“I’m so excited - even if it’s not me who has won. For my town, it’s a big thing.”
While Lotto NZ has confirmed a ticketholder has come forward to claim the biggest lotto win in the town’s history, they have so far remained tight-lipped about whether the winner is a Wairoa local.
They simply said the $10.3m prize was claimed by a couple on Monday afternoon who are looking forward to helping their family, a Stuff report said.
The previous biggest lotto win in Wairoa was a $650,000 Lotto first division prize in December 2001.