'I'm not flashy' - how I made my $5m Lotto win work for me and my family

A Lotto winner who landed a $5 million jackpot just over a year ago says he's found the key to making a big win work for him and his family.

The Central Otago man says they've sidestepped the trap that some big money winners fall into of going overboard with their spending.

“I'm not one that's flashy or anything," the man said. "I'm so down to earth, and the kids - I want to bring them up so that they appreciate things."

The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, reflected on the moment he got confirmation he’d won with Powerball First Division on a call with Lotto’s customer service.

“She said, ‘You’ve won First Division – congratulations!’ Then she said, ‘You’ve also won Powerball.’ I said, ‘So what’s that?’ She said, ‘You’ve won five million all up.’ And I just went, ‘That’s a hell of a lot of f***ing zeroes.’”

He then handed the phone to his wife, asking the woman on the phone to tell her the exact same thing she’d just told him.

Tears flowed.

“In that minute, everything changed and this little dark tunnel suddenly had this massive bright light at the end of it.”

The winner says a few blurry weeks followed, and finally a year later, he’s found that money doesn’t buy happiness, it buys freedom.

“It brought us together again as a family.”

While mostly spending the money on the “expected stuff” – paying off debts, making investments and the odd family holiday – he has allowed himself a few “toys”.

These included a nice ute and a caravan, which have allowed him to take full advantage of the extra time he’s got to spend with his family.

In mid-November, before a record $55 million Lotto jackpot was drawn, Pacifica Wealth Advisors president Robert Pagliarini spoke to Breakfast about the “lottery curse” or “sudden wealth syndrome”.

It's a phenomenon whereby people who unexpectedly receive large sums of money experience changes in character, anxiety, paranoia and isolation. Some spend the money irresponsibly, and quickly end up back where they started, or even worse off.

However, after winning $5 million the Central Otago man maintained he hasn’t changed one bit.

Even $100 million wouldn’t have been enough to make him the swanky type, he said.

“I'm still a loose cannon and nutty and just enjoying life.”

But he admitted he still had a rather large carrot dangling in front of him.

“I always said to my wife, you know, when I win Lotto, I'm going to buy a Lamborghini.”

And then he won Lotto. He could finally buy that Lamborghini, his wife said.

“I pondered on it for a couple of days, and I came back and said, ‘No.’ Then she said, ‘Why?’ And I said, ‘If I buy my Lamborghini, where’s my dream?’”

Fifty-one players became millionaires in 2025 - a year with a huge must-win jackpot, as well as Lotto's second-largest financial year return ever.

Lotto's CEO Jason Delamore said the highlight of the year came in November with the record-breaking $55 million win, shared between three players.

The new millionaires during the year included two Instant Kiwi winners who claimed their prizes 17 minutes apart.

There were also a couple of nice stories to come out of Kiwis’ smaller wins.

In one case a South Auckland woman had forgotten about a bonus ticket in her handbag until she was tracked down by Lotto using electronic transaction records. The ticket was a $500,000 winner.

Elsewhere, a Bay of Plenty couple also became $500,000 richer after a news article prompted them to rifle through a drawer of old lottery tickets. The winning one had sat dormant for three months.

Players have 12 months from the draw date to claim their winnings, after which they go back into the prize pool. Lotto was last month still looking for three people sitting on winning First Division tickets purchased at Auckland’s Sunnybrae and Lakeview Superettes, as well as New World Westport.

The Gambling Act 2003 requires all Lotto profits be used to benefit New Zealand communities, which is done through the New Zealand Lottery Grants Board.

Grants of all sizes are distributed to a range of organisations and communities, big and small.

One of the larger ones to receive a grant – to the tune of $250,000 – was the Toy Library Federation of NZ.

It works exactly how it sounds, members pay a small fee to rent out a toy for two weeks, after which Advocacy and Partnership Lead Haemia Melling agreed kids usually want a new toy anyway.

As well as catering for short attention spans, the library model allows parents to pick toys suited to their kids’ developmental ages without breaking the bank.

There are around 160 toy libraries from Kerikeri to Rakiura (Stewart Island), with more than 12,000 members renting out toys for upwards of 19,000 kids.

Melling quoted one volunteer as saying: “I love the sense of community, the support of parents, the amazing toys and the friends that my children have made.”

The federation has received grants from the board for at least 13 years, distributing $1.9 million of funding to libraries nationwide since 2012. Last year was the biggest one yet.

"By purchasing a lotto ticket, you're giving us a chance to Play it Forward in the 160 communities where our toy libraries show up. This helps more than 12,000 whānau and 19,000 tamariki across the motu have affordable and more sustainable access to play. It's one of the many ways you can join the play."

In February, Bowls Waiariki Inc. will host the the 52nd Aotearoa Māori Bowls Nationals 2026 in Rotorua.

President Lillie Mohi said the $10,000 lottery funding received will save her organisation quite a few fundraising sausage sizzles in preparation for an event that will draw around 140 teams, 400 players, 70 volunteers, and 100 supporters from across Aotearoa – a big step up on the past six or so years.

“Every year, about this time, everybody’s getting excited,” she said of the event.

“It’s like we’re all coming back together again, like one big, huge, happy family.”

There are people still participating who’ve been part and parcel of it from the beginning.

A member of Ngongotaha Bowling Club, Mohi has been playing the game for 25 years and is now responsible for hosting.

She said without the funding they would have been struggling, so the news brought “a lot of relief and a lot of smiles”.

“Thank you to all New Zealanders out there for purchasing those Lotto tickets because without you, we would not get the support for us to be able to host the 2026 52nd Aotearoa Bowls Tournament.”