Its oldest and most popular game is Lotto, which boasts a top prize pool of NZ$1 million.

Instant Kiwi may only be played by persons 18 years of age or older, under the Gambling Act 2003.

Since its creation, Lotto NZ has contributed more than $5.9 billion to the Lottery Grants Board.

The New Zealand Cabinet approved the creation of Lotto in February 1986, the necessary legislation passing through Parliament in April that year with a 47–20 vote.

[4] Originally a weekly game, the first tickets went on sale on 22 July 1987 and the first draw took place on 1 August 1987.

The televised draw is currently hosted by Sonia Gray and Jordan Vandermade.

To win First Division (the top prize), one has to simply mark off all six numbers on the same line.

They worked as follows: Between November 2002 and August 2004, a millionaire was drawn every week from all the Division One winners.

On 3 October 2010, the price per line was raised from $0.50 to $0.60, to cover the cost of the rise in GST from 12.5% to 15%, and to increase the minimum prize to $4 million.

Starting from the 30 May 2018 draw, Lotto, Strike and Powerball are drawn using Smartplay Halogen II machines.

This has occurred on two occasions: the first was in October 2019 when the New Zealand International Convention Centre fire forced the TVNZ studios to be evacuated,[11] and the second was during the COVID-19 pandemic Level 4 lockdown in March–April 2020.

The winner was awarded an all expenses paid trip to the studio in Wellington and, later, Auckland where they appeared on the show and spun the eponymous wheel to determine their prize.

The two-metre diameter wheel had 30 segments, each segment carrying either a cash prize ranging from $100,000 to $1 million, or non-cash prizes such as cars, shopping sprees and a $500,000 house and land package.

Following the format of the popular bingo hall game, Keno draws are made daily at 10am, 1pm, 3pm and 6pm.

If one matches the Bullseye number exactly, they win first division and the top prize of a minimum $100,000.

Instant Kiwi is Lotto NZ's series of scratchcards and online games.

The hosts were Simon Barnett, who was later replaced by Grant Walker, and Ingrid Mole.

After Cross was earned, random squares were given with every correct answer until either a viewer or a contestant got Bingo.

If that team won, then all tickets bearing that colour went into a draw for a cash prize.

Three teams of two contestants (namely Red, Yellow and Purple) were spotted $500 ($300 in the first few episodes) to begin the game with.

The mechanism of the draw was similar to Lotto, with players trying to correctly guess the six numbers drawn.

However, there were 50 balls for Big Wednesday, not 40, and the game had the added feature of a "coin toss"; along with the numbers, players must predict heads or tails.

A player matching all six numbers will only win the jackpot if they correctly guess the outcome of the coin toss.

However, if the player did not match the coin toss, they would win Second Division, which consisted of a smaller jackpotting cash prize.

As with Lotto, players could also have their numbers selected for them by the machine by purchasing a Big Wednesday "Dip".

Effective from the draw on 14 September 2011,[14] the number of balls was increased from 45 to 50, lengthening the Division 1 (and 2) odds to 1 in 31,781,400.

The Division 5 prize (for three correct numbers, previously winning a Lucky Dip entry) was split into new Division 5 for a matched coin toss, now winning a cash prize, and Division 6 for an incorrect coin toss prediction, winning a four-line Lucky Dip entry.

The original format of Big Wednesday saw the first draw's jackpot consist of $2 million cash and two luxury cars.

Players must register to use the service, and add funds to their account via internet banking or credit card before purchasing tickets.

MyLotto operates between 6.30 am and 11 pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, and between 6.30 am and midnight on Wednesday and Saturday.