The West Coast punter who won the $15.77 million Lotto Powerball jackpot has come forward.



The winner chose the six lucky numbers they played regularly but, in a clever move, chose to play the same numbers on 10 different lines with each Powerball number. That way they were ensured to win Powerball if their lucky numbers came up.



The winner struck the first division 10 times and the Powerball once, netting $769,000 for the 10 first-division tickets and another $15m for Powerball.



The same strategy was used by a family in Nelson who won $8.1m in December 2011.



A New Zealand Lotteries spokeswoman said it had spoken with the West Coast winner but they had not yet officially claimed their prize.



If the winner had bought just one line, four people would have shared $250,000. Instead, the other three winners - from Auckland, Lower Hutt and Nelson - took home $76,923.



Twenty-one other people won $14,860 on Lotto second division nationwide. Two added $15,659 to their prize by winning Powerball second division as well.