Filling your line with birthdays doesn't hurt your odds, since every combination of six is equally likely. It does hurt your share if you win: dates only cover 1 through 31, so those numbers are over-picked and the nine numbers from 32 to 40 sit on far fewer tickets. A jackpot won on low numbers is more likely to be split.
The game at a glance
6 of 40 + Powerball
Wed · Sat
New Zealand
1 in 38,383,800
The same for every possible combination, including this one.
1 of 10
Powerball: you pick it yourself, drawn from a separate pool.
18+
Must be 18+ to play NZ Lotto.
NZ Lotto, in brief
Lotto is New Zealand's national lottery draw, run by Lotto NZ on behalf of the Crown since 1987. A line asks you to pick six numbers from 1 to 40, and the machine then draws a seventh Bonus Ball from the 34 numbers left in the barrel. Match all six and you win Division 1, a fixed $1 million split among however many tickets hit it that night.
Powerball is not a separate game. It's an optional add-on to the same line: for a little extra you also pick one Powerball number from 1 to 10, and if that number comes up alongside your six winning Lotto numbers you take the Powerball jackpot instead of the $1 million. The odds of that full match are 1 in 38,383,800 per line. When nobody wins, the jackpot rolls over from draw to draw, which is how it climbs into the tens of millions.
Draws are held on Wednesday and Saturday nights. The same ticket can also carry Strike, a side game where you try to match the first four Lotto balls in the exact order they're drawn.
Prize tiers
6 numbers + PowerballJackpot
The Powerball jackpot, shared if more than one ticket matches, paid tax-free as a lump sum
6 numbers
Lotto Division 1, a fixed $1 million split among all winning tickets
5 numbers + Bonus Ball
Usually around $20,000, varying with sales and winner counts
5 numbers
A few hundred dollars
4 numbers + Bonus Ball
A modest cash prize, typically under a hundred dollars
4 numbers
A small cash prize
3 numbers + Bonus Ball
The smallest cash division, roughly the cost of a ticket or two
3 numbers
No cash, but four free Lotto lines for a future draw
Where NZ Lotto came from
Saturday nights since 1987
The first Lotto draw ran on 1 August 1987 with a top prize of $359,808, and the televised Saturday draw quickly became a national fixture. The 6-from-40 format has never changed. Strike joined the ticket in April 1993, and midweek draws later made it a twice-weekly game.
Powerball arrives
Lotto NZ added Powerball in February 2001 as a jackpot layer on top of the base game. The Powerball was originally drawn from just eight numbers; in October 2007 the pool widened to ten, stretching the odds so jackpots could roll longer and grow larger before someone finally matched all seven.
The must-be-won rule
Unlike lotteries that let jackpots roll indefinitely, NZ Powerball has a hard ceiling. Once the jackpot reaches the cap, which sat at $50 million for years before Lotto NZ announced a lift to $60 million, the next draw is a must-be-won draw. If no ticket matches six plus the Powerball that night, the whole jackpot rolls down and is shared among the winners in the next division that does have winners.
Picking numbers, honestly
A number that hasn't appeared for months isn't due. The barrel has no memory, so every one of the 40 balls carries identical odds in every draw regardless of what came out last week or last year.
You pick your Powerball, but you never pick the Bonus Ball. It's simply the seventh ball out of the main barrel, drawn from the 34 numbers that didn't make the winning six, and it exists only to create the in-between divisions.
NZ Lotto — frequently asked
No. Powerball is an add-on to a standard Lotto line: you keep your six main numbers and pick one extra number from 1 to 10. If your six numbers win Division 1 and your Powerball matches too, you win the jackpot instead of the $1 million.
The Powerball is a number you choose, drawn from its own pool of 10. The Bonus Ball is drawn by the machine from the 34 main numbers left after the winning six, and no player picks it. It only matters for the mid-tier divisions, like five numbers plus the Bonus Ball.
The next draw becomes a must-be-won draw. If no ticket matches all six numbers plus the Powerball, the jackpot rolls down and is shared among winners in the highest division that does have winners, so the money is paid out either way.
A side game added to a Lotto ticket for a small extra cost. You pick four numbers and try to match the first four Lotto balls in the exact order they leave the machine. Match all four in order and you win the Strike top prize.
Three numbers on their own win four free Lotto lines rather than cash. The smallest cash prize needs three numbers plus the Bonus Ball.
1 in 38,383,800 per line: 1 in 3,838,380 to match six from 40, multiplied by the 1-in-10 Powerball. Winning any Lotto prize at all is far more common, since the free-ticket division hits about once every 35 lines.