The New Zealand Lotteries Commission, trading as Lotto New Zealand since 2013, is a Crown entity that operates nationwide lotteries in New Zealand. It was established in 1987 and operates under the Gambling Act 2003. Its oldest and most popular game is Lotto, which boasts a top prize pool of NZ$1 million. Other games include the four-draws-daily Keno, the daily Bullseye, and a variety of scratchcards and online games known as Instant Kiwi. Instant Kiwi may only be played by persons 18 years of age or older, under the Gambling Act 2003. Powerball and Lotto Strike are optional extras with every Lotto ticket. Powerball is a jackpotting game, with a maximum jackpot of $60 million, after which a Must Be Won draw must be called.

Profits from the publicly regulated lotteries are passed to the New Zealand Lottery Grants Board to distribute as funding for recreation, arts, community projects and sports. Since its creation, Lotto NZ has contributed more than $5.9 billion to the Lottery Grants Board. The New Zealand Film Commission, Creative New Zealand, and Sport New Zealand are major recipients of lottery funding.

History The New Zealand Cabinet approved the creation of Lotto in February 1986, the necessary legislation passing through Parliament in April that year with a 47–20 vote. The New Zealand Lotteries Commission was established in June 1987 and the existing Golden Kiwi lottery came under its authority. Since 2013 the commission has been trading as Lotto New Zealand.

The first Lotto draw, with a top prize of $359,808, was held on 1 August 1987. The range of games has expanded, with a number of new ones being introduced, though some later ceased. Instant Kiwi scratchcards were introduced in 1989 (replacing Golden Kiwi), Lotto Strike in 1993, Keno in 1994, Powerball in 2001, Big Wednesday in 2005, Bullseye in 2009, Play 3 in 2014 and Instant Play in 2017. Big Wednesday ceased in 2015 and Play 3 in 2019.

Lotto has been worked into two past game shows, "TeleBingo" and "Risk". There were "Extra Draws" on a few occasions in 1998.

In April 2013 the Advertising Standards Authority considered a complaint about a Lotto advertisement featuring a dog stealing his owner's Lotto ticket because he got a cat. It dismissed the complaint.

Current games All monetary values are in New Zealand dollars.

Lotto

Lotto, including Powerball and Strike, is the most purchased of the games, accounting for $1,169 million or 84.4% of Lotto NZ's income. Originally a weekly game, the first tickets went on sale on 22 July 1987 and the first draw took place on 1 August 1987. It has a televised draw on TVNZ 1 at approximately 8pm every Saturday night and, since 2015, 8:20pm every Wednesday. The draw aired on TVNZ 2 from inception in August 1987 until July 2015 when it moved to TVNZ 1. If TVNZ 1 covers special events on various occasions (e.g. New Zealand general elections, Olympic Games etc), the draw will air on TVNZ 2. The televised draw is currently hosted by Sonia Gray and Jordan Vandermade.

The Lotto Rules 2000 codifies the rules for Lotto and its related games.

Main game + Lotto odds and prizes Division Matching numbers Odds per line Average Prize 1 6 numbers 1 in 3,838,380 Over $350,000 2 5 numbers and bonus ball 1 in 639,730 $19,995 3 5 numbers 1 in 19,386 $601 4 4 numbers and bonus ball 1 in 7,754 $55 5 4 numbers 1 in 485 $30 6 3 numbers and bonus ball 1 in 363 $22 7 3 numbers 1 in 35 4 bonus lines (fixed prize)

In the main game of Lotto, six balls and one bonus ball are drawn from a Smartplay Halogen II machine containing 40 balls numbered 1 to 40. To win First Division (the top prize), one has to simply mark off all six numbers on the same line.

Players can buy Lotto tickets by selecting their own numbers using a coupon, or they can have the machine randomly generate their numbers by purchasing a Lotto Dip. Tickets cost $0.70 per line,:8 with a minimum of four lines if playing with a coupon. The least expensive Lotto Dip is the Basic Lucky Dip, which costs $5.60 for eight lines.

Changes since introduction Originally, Lotto tickets cost $0.50 per line. This was increased to $0.60 in August 2004, and to $0.70 in April 2017. In November 2002, some changes were made, all of which (except for the new-look logo and a separate division for four numbers plus the bonus) were withdrawn in August 2004. They were: A Guaranteed Millionaire was drawn every week from the First Division winners (see below). This meant that Jackpots and Superdraws were out of the question for 21 months. A second bonus ball was drawn.

Extra draws In 1998, there were several Extra Draws during the year. They worked as follows: Every Lotto ticket purchased for the draw entered the Extra Draw for no extra charge. All the numbers had to match for a share of $1,000,000 cash. Lotto Strike and the bonus ball is not included as well as no other prize divisions. The amount was $1,500,000 on one occasion, which came from an unclaimed ticket sold in Blenheim in October 1997 (this was known as the Blenheim Bonus.)

Guaranteed millionaires Between November 2002 and August 2004, a millionaire was drawn every week from all the Division One winners. Sometimes, more than one millionaire was drawn.

The rest of the Division One prizes were done as follows: If there were between one and four left, they won $250,000 each. If there were between five and nine left, they won $150,000 each. If there were between 10 and 19 left, they won $100,000 each. If there were 20 or more left, they shared $300,000 between them.

However, if there was only one Division One winner to begin with, they automatically won the million, and if nobody matched all six numbers, which only happened once, the millionaire was selected from Division Two.

Lotto Strike

Introduced 3 April 1993.

A Lotto player may, at a cost of $1, add to their ticket four Lotto Strike numbers. The objective is to match these numbers, in exact order, with the first four numbers of the Lotto draw.

The current minimum jackpot for the "Strike 4" prize is $200,000, and increases by that amount until won, or until the jackpot reaches $1,500,000 or the tenth draw without a winner.New Zealand Lotteries Commission (2007). How to Play Lotto. Retrieved on 10 February 2010.

Division Requirements Odds Average PrizeStrike 4Four Lotto Strike numbers matching the exact order of the first four Lotto numbers drawn1 in 2,193,360Over $300,000Strike 3Three Lotto Strike numbers match the exact order of any three of the first four Lotto numbers drawn1 in 15,232$668Strike 2Two Lotto Strike numbers match the exact order of any two of the first four Lotto numbers drawn1 in 274$67Strike 1One Lotto Strike number matches one of the first four Lotto numbers drawn1 in 111 bonus line (fixed prize)

Powerball

+ Lotto Powerball odds and prizes Division Matching numbers Odds per line Average prize (incl. Lotto winnings) 1 Lotto Division 1 and Powerball 1 in 53,737,320 Over $17.2 million 2 Lotto Division 2 and Powerball 1 in 8,956,220 $45,056 3 Lotto Division 3 and Powerball 1 in 271,401 $1,406 4 Lotto Division 4 and Powerball 1 in 108,560 $131 5 Lotto Division 5 and Powerball 1 in 6,785 $70 6 Lotto Division 6 and Powerball 1 in 5,089 $50 7 Lotto Division 7 and Powerball 1 in 493 $20 + 4 bonus lines (fixed prize) 8 Powerball Division 8 1 in 657 $12

Introduced February 2001.

A line may be "enhanced" by the purchase of a Powerball number. If Powerball is played, a minimum of four Powerball numbers must be purchased per ticket, at the cost of $0.80 per line. The Powerball number is a number between 1 and 14, drawn from a separate machine from the main Lotto draw. If the winning Powerball number is on the same line as a winning line of Lotto, the ticket holder wins a share of the Powerball prize pool in addition to the prize won from the main Lotto draw.

To win first division Powerball, the winner must first win Lotto first division, and have the winning Powerball number on the same line. The prize for first division is very large: a minimum of $5 million, but with the chances of winning one-tenth of the odds of winning an equivalent prize in the main draw. Since September 2026 Powerball First Division can jackpot to a maximum of $60 million. Once the limit is met or passed, a "Must Be Won" draw must be held in which, if First Division is not won, the First Division jackpot must be split amongst the winners of the next highest division for which there are winners.

When introduced, the Powerball number was originally drawn from eight numbers, and the minimum prize was $1 million. The maximum jackpot, which initially was $15 million, was gradually raised to $30 million. In October 2007, Powerball was changed to ten numbers and the minimum prize was changed to $3 million. On 3 October 2010, the price per line was raised from $0.50 to $0.60, to cover the cost of the rise in GST from 12.5% to 15%, and to increase the minimum prize to $4 million. In October 2015, Division 7 was introduced and the maximum jackpot increased from $30 million to $40 million. In April 2017, the price per line changed from $0.60 to $0.80 and the maximum jackpot increased from $40 million to $50 million.

Draw machines Starting from the 30 May 2018 draw, Lotto, Strike and Powerball are drawn using Smartplay Halogen II machines. Until the 26 May 2018 draw, a Ryo Catteau Stresa draw machine was used for Lotto and Strike, while Powerball was drawn from with one of two Ryo Catteau Mimosa machines.

The machines have been known to fail to draw numbers on-air on several occasions, requiring the numbers to be redrawn off-air under auditor scrutiny. These include:

25 October 2014: The Powerball machine failed to draw a winning number on-air. The audited off-air draw resulted in 4 drawn as the winning number. 15 July 2017: The Powerball machine initially captured number 6 but it was knocked out of the tube during the presentation. The draw was aborted, and the audited off-air draw resulted in 1 drawn as the winning number. In the event the draw machines cannot be used, the Lotto draw can be conducted using a backup random number generator at Lotto NZ's headquarters. This has occurred on two occasions: the first was in October 2019 when the New Zealand International Convention Centre fire forced the TVNZ studios to be evacuated, and the second was during the COVID-19 pandemic Level 4 lockdown in March–April 2020, and August—September 2021.

Keno

Following the format of the popular bingo hall game, Keno draws are made daily at 10am, 1pm, 3pm and 6pm. Tickets cost between $1 and $100 per line. The top prize for matching 10 numbers from 10 is $250,000 for a $1 wager, with a maximum prize of $1 million available. Keno Multiplier was added in February 2019.

Bullseye + Lotto Bullseye odds and prizes Division Requirements Odds per line Average Prize 1 Bullseye number 1 in 1,000,000 $180,000 2 Number 1 to 5 either side of Bullseye number 1 in 100,000 $10,000 3 Number 6 to 50 either side of Bullseye number 1 in 11,111 $500 4 Number 51 to 500 either side of Bullseye number 1 in 1,111 $100 5 Number 501 to 5000 either side of Bullseye number 1 in 111 $25 6 Number 5001 to 50000 either side of Bullseye number 1 in 11 $2 bonus ticket

Bullseye is a daily lottery game, launched on 19 October 2009. The winning number is drawn at 6pm and results are available online and in-store at 6:10pm.