Many people imagine what they'd do if they won tens of millions of dollars in Lotto's Powerball, but the truth of what most winners do is surprisingly restrained.
While four players claimed a share of $1million from winning Lotto First Division on Wednesday night, Powerball was not struck, meaning the jackpot for Saturday's draw will be $23 million.
However, not all winners celebrate with champagne if they clinch the big one.
Speaking on More FM's Jay-Jay and Flynny on Friday, Lotto's head of winner experience Lucy Fullarton said while there was a special room for winners at their Auckland HQ, most people opt for a "glass of water" to celebrate.
When asked by Flynny if there was a "winner's circle", Fullarton said: "It's the truth, there's a special room for our winners. Funnily enough, not many people do have champagne though [to celebrate].
"They can if they want but most people just want a glass of water and a bit of a cup of tea and someone to talk to," Fullarton said.
"They usually haven't slept or eaten much. They are often in shock, in a funny way, in a good way, they are over the moon."
She also said many winners say picking up the millions from Lotto HQ was the only time many of them could chat honestly about what was going to happen next.
"We're the only people really they can talk to who have no personal interest at all in the money so they do just really open up to us," she said.
Fullarton also said one of the big things many people don't think about is what happens behind the scenes at the banks to ensure your local branch doesn't suddenly question why your account had millions of extra dollars deposited overnight, once the win had been cleared.
"Every bank has a delegated person who we can put in touch with the lotto winners so that person can take their bank account, lift it up to head office so nobody knows it's happened.
"It just means when the money lands in there, the local branch isn't alerted. So if you were living in a small town, and you know the people at your local branch that just gives them an extra layer of anonymity."
Fullarton wouldn't be drawn on how many extra tickets would be bought for Saturday's draw, but she did say anecdotally that "more people come in for more tickets" as soon as the jackpot got over the $20 million mark.
