Lotto lucky in Hornby
Loyal customers at Christchurch's luckiest Lotto store have ticket ordering down to a special art.
Jenny Davis, manager at the Hornby Mall Lotto outlet, says some regular customers will only buy from certain operators.
"Sometimes, they'll find they've had an operator they've had a lucky ticket with and go back to them."
Figures from the NZ Lotteries' Commission rated Mrs Davis' store as the luckiest in Christchurch last year, based on the number of winning tickets sold.
Customers bought 69,901 winning tickets from the store last year, which paid out more than $1.9 million in prize money. The store's impressive winning record also made it the nation's third luckiest Lotto outlet.
Lotto's $1m promotional birthday prize was also claimed from a ticket sold at the Hornby store.
Mrs Davis said the August prize, which was claimed by an older lady known only as June, was the biggest in the store's history.
"That's the biggest one we've had... but we've [also] had some fairly big prizes like half a million."
The biggest single prize won in Christchurch last year was a $5.5m first division scoop from Stanmore New World.
Nationally, 24 Lotto millionaires were created last year.
Two South Auckland stores - less than 1km apart - topped the luckiest retailers' list by selling the most winning ticket.
Manukau Pak'n Save and Countdown Manukau City Mall outlets notched up 78,550 and 73,711 respective winners last year. The Pak'n Save outlet has been the luckiest store for three consecutive years.
In total, more than $2.6m in prize money was netted between the two stores in 2012.
Lotto outlets in Pak'n Save Riccarton and Radius Pharmacy Peter Dunkerley in Hastings rounded out the top five.
When it came to the year's biggest wins - Tauranga's AJ's Lotto store took out the top spot after selling a $27m winning ticket. The Big Wednesday prize was claimed in September by a local man, who described himself as a "typical Kiwi bloke". It was the third biggest prize in NZ Lotteries' history.
Waikato's Te Kauwhata Foodmarket scored the year's second biggest prize after former check-out operator Trevor Cooper claimed a $26m Powerball jackpot in April.
NZ Lotteries' chief executive Wayne Pickup said Mr Cooper's win gave Waikato the country's highest rate of per capita winnings for the year ($641.50).
Invercargill, which had a $20.5m winner in November, came in second with a rate of $467.94. Few details about the millionaire winner were released, other than he was a South Island vintage motorcycle buff.
The $20.5m win was the year's third largest Lotteries windfall.
Clutha, Tauranga and Napier rounded out the rest of the top five spots for per capita winnings.
Christchurch city came in 23rd with a rate of $70.
