Two players won $500,000 each in last Saturday’s draw with the winning tickets sold at Fresh Choice Ngāruawāhia and Four Square Paeroa.

Last weekend’s draw came more than a week after $1m was won, which brought “tears and laughter” to a Hamilton couple two weeks after a shocking cancer diagnosis.

The husband, married to his wife for nearly 40 years, received the cancer news before Christmas.

“I had no symptoms of cancer at all, the doctors were extremely shocked when the results came through and it was a hell of a shock to me,” he said.

The pair watched the January 3 draw with the same numbers they had on their tickets for the past 35 years and had joked about giving up the weekly ritual because they had never won big.

“We watched the draw and thought, ‘Oooh, we’ve probably got four numbers’.

“We didn’t think anything more of it until we could check it, and then there were tears and laughter.

“My hands were shaking and neither of us could sleep.”

What to do if you win

Ticket holders can see immediately if they have won if they purchased a ticket through MyLotto. Prizes of $1000 or less are automatically credited to the account.

For prizes exceeding $1000, winners must complete an online prize claim form.

Winners with physical tickets must still visit a Lotto retailer to claim their prize.

For the Powerball jackpot to be claimed, a ticket holder must get all six Lotto numbers correct as well as the added Powerball number.

Top 5 Lotto individual wins of all time:

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