Lotto winners stash their precious tickets in weird locations

In a Bible, around their neck or stashed in a folder of old bills, Lotto players have taken to hiding their tickets in some obscure places.

While the New Zealand Lotteries Commission was still waiting for the lucky winner of the latest $20.2 million Powerball to claim their prize, the company has revealed some of the quirky habits of its players.

An Auckland Powerball winner in July put her winning $8.5m ticket in a Monty Python DVD case.

Worried about losing the ticket, the winner then put the DVD under her pillow and slept with it.

In March last year, a Gisborne couple held on to their winning ticket for two weeks before they claimed their $6.5m prize, keeping it in a bills folder for safekeeping.

Last year's $30m winner, the third biggest in Lotto's history, hid their ticket in a Christmas card and then put the card in the back of a photoframe mounted on the wall.

Last Saturday's winning ticket was sold at the Hornby Mall Lotto store in Christchurch.

The store has sold 30 First Division tickets, making it the fourth "luckiest" store in New Zealand.

The total prize was made up of $20m from Powerball First Division and $200,000 from Lotto First Division.

The largest Lotto win in New Zealand history was in 2016 when a ticket sold in Auckland won the $44m Powerball.

The next biggest was another win in Auckland in 2013, which saw a lucky punter walk away with a cool $33m.