Biggest Lottery Winners

A record-breaking PowerBall jackpot came to the boil after virtually a whole summer without a winner, jumping up to R232 million for the draw on 19 February 2019. A single ticket matched all the numbers and the winner came forward to claim their money one week later, opting to stay anonymous.

It was revealed, however, that the ticket belonged to a man in his 50s from Cape Town who worked in a ‘blue collar’ job and had no intention of quitting work. He picked his own numbers and spent just R22.50 on buying his tickets at an OK Mini Mart in Tygerdal. His main focus for the money was to give his children the best education possible.

This was the second-largest jackpot in the history of SA PowerBall at the time, and went to a player from Ballito on the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal. The lucky player spent just R150 on their Quick Pick ticket.

No more information was revealed about the winner, who stayed anonymous. The jackpot had previously rolled over for 24 consecutive draws.

History was made in this draw as a woman from the North West became South Africa’s biggest-ever online winner, bringing an end to a run of rollovers lasting almost three months. She spent just R15 on her ticket, using the ABSA banking app to pick her regular numbers.

She said the win came at a much-needed time, as she had become unemployed the previous year in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. The lucky lady said she would buy a new ome, do lots of travelling and donate some of her winnings to charity.

This enormous prize was won on PowerBall Plus rather than Powerball, after an incredible run of rollovers stretching back to the previous December. The only player to match the winning numbers was a man from KwaZulu-Natal, who had bet via the Standard Bank app.

He revealed that he was not a regular player but had entered his numbers in 10 consecutive draws as the jackpot was so large. He thanked his in-laws for encouraging him to play and hailed the windfall as a ‘massive gift’ that would set the family up for life. However, he insisted that he and his wife had no immediate plans to retire.

An engineer from Secunda revealed that he had used his dreams for guidance after winning R145 million. The young man, who did not want his name to be disclosed, had picked the number 4 as his PowerBall, based on the ‘Fafi’ system of dream analysis and associating objects or events with numbers, having dreamt of a fight before he played.

The winner bought his R20 ticket from Evander Dienstasie on 1 Rotter Dam Road, Evander, and decided to keep his ticket in his sock over the weekend until he was ready to claim. He even said that he was too afraid to go outside before he claimed the money in case something happened to him.

There were four winning tickets in the biggest Lotto draw of all time, each worth R27.5 million. It took 21 rollovers to create the R110 million jackpot, with no winners for two and a half months.

One of the lucky winners left it almost a full year to come forward, claiming their prize just a day before it expired. He was described as a 58-year-old from Ravensmead in Cape Town, but did not want any further information to be divulged.

A single player used the Capitec banking app to win this staggering jackpot - the second-largest in Lotto history at the time. It had been almost three months since the last time that someone had matched all six main numbers, taking the top prize towards record territory.

One more rollover might have seen it become the biggest ever, but the winner could still lay claim to being the luckiest-ever Lotto player as they did not have to share the R103 million. She claimed her prize within a few days and revealed that her daughter was the first person she told, adding: “When I received the call from the bank, I burst into tears.”

This huge win came after a three-month stretch without anyone matching all the numbers. The winner did not come forward immediately, leading to calls for everyone to check their tickets. It was also revealed that the lucky entry was sold at Pick n Pay, Hazeldean Square, Pretoria.

The winner eventually staked her claim a few weeks later and expressed her immense gratitude and excitement. She decided to remain anonymous.

The Cape Town winner of this big jackpot revealed that she wanted to give R2 million to a petrol attendant who had always been polite and helpful.

She also intended to buy a house with a garden for her grandson to play in, and pay for her daughter to quit her job as a call-centre agent so she could fulfil a dream of studying towards a psychology degree.

A woman in her 50s celebrated Mother’s Day in style with a R58 million win. She revealed that she normally only played PowerBall but decided to give Lotto a go because she noticed it was a particularly large jackpot.

She said she would only carry on working for another six months before handing over her responsibilities and taking an early retirement.