It still remains unclaimed! No one has yet claimed Auckland’s $6.5 million winning Lotto prize and word is going around that the winner might not even be in the country.
The lucky ticket was drawn on Saturday, June 30. The winner who bought his ticket at Fix St James in Queen St, Auckland will receive $6 million from Powerball jackpot plus $500,000 from Lotto First Division.
Chief executive Wayne Pickup said, “this is the fifth Powerball multi-millionaire to be created in 2012 and comes three weeks after a Napier couple won $10.3 million.”
Nomad Backpackers on Fort St is just around the corner from the Fix store so it is possible that the ticket was purchased by a tourist who is no longer in the country, Lotto spokeswoman Karen Jones said.
From Twitter…
Still no claim for $6.5m Lotto win: http://t.co/2S15hQHy anyone forget to check???! Wasn’t me 
— melafeks (Mela Fekitoa) (@melafeks) Wed Jul 11 2012
The Backpackers is doing all it can in the hopes of finding the unsuspecting millionaire. But if their efforts will not bring results, Lotto will try and track down the winner themselves if the prize is still unclaimed three weeks after the draw date.
The largest prize unclaimed in New Zealand history is $3m, “but that was many years ago” Ms Jones said.
