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$4 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.
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 $4 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
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.)