Holly Jolly Christmas Eve Eve at National Lottery HQ as Winners Claim total of €9.3 million
Kilkenny Work Syndicate Claims €6,834,410 Lotto Jackpot
Dublin Family Syndicate Leaves it Late to Collect €2.5 Million EuroMillions Prize
National Lottery headquarters in Dublin City centre was the scene of two special Christmas parties today (Tuesday) as two separate syndicates from Kilkenny and Dublin claimed a total of €9.3 million in Lotto and EuroMillions prizes.
The biggest claim of the day was made by a large Kilkenny work syndicate that won the €6,834,410 Lotto jackpot on Saturday 7th December. Joined by a large group of family and friends, the delighted syndicate spoke of their joy at scooping the jackpot with a ticket that they purchased at Blanchfield’s Centra store in Mooncoin, Co. Kilkenny.
One of the members of the lucky Lotto syndicate from Kilkenny said, “We still can’t believe it. The first I heard about the win was the Sunday morning after the draw when the head of the syndicate called me and the first thing he said was, ‘We might not have to go to work tomorrow’. We thought he was having a joke with us so a couple of us made our way to his house so we could inspect the ticket for ourselves. It’s an amazing win and with so many members of the syndicate, it is lovely that so many families will benefit from it before Christmas,” he said.
“We’re all different ages so some of us will be paying off our mortgages while others will be able to get a foot on the property ladder without every having a mortgage. It really is life-changing for all of us. That being said, we have all been to work since and we have no plans to give up working anytime soon. We plan to enjoy the Christmas knowing that we have the money in the bank and I’m sure we can start making our plans for the money in the New Year once we have had time to think about it,” he added.
While plans for spending are currently on hold until after Christmas, the group of Kilkenny work colleagues have discussed giving a portion of their win towards a worthy charity in their community.
“We are incredibly fortunate to have won over €6.8 million and we really want to make a real difference to the community with our win. As a group, we’ve discussed different charities so we’ll be spending some time in the next couple of weeks to ensure that we can make a real difference to people’s lives,” they added.
Also claiming a life-changing National Lottery prize today was a Dublin family syndicate who won a €2,521,015 EuroMillions prize on Tuesday 4th October.
The Match 5 + One Lucky Star winning ticket was sold on 3 October at Kane’s/McCartney’s SuperValu in the seaside town of Donabate in North Co. Dublin. The quick pick ticket fell one lucky star number (numbered between one and 12) short of winning the €190 million jackpot, which would have been one of the biggest ever lottery jackpot prize wins in Europe.
The family were getting into the festive spirit in the National Lottery Winner’s Room and revealed the reason they waited more than two months to claim their EuroMillions prize.
A spokesperson for the syndicate, who wish to remain anonymous, said: “We found out a couple of days after the draw when I scanned the ticket. I just felt numb and went online to double check the numbers. It took a bit of time before I found the right words to announce it to the rest of these guys. When we eventually got everyone in the room and I told them, there was great excitement. We came down from our cloud eventually and sought financial advice and waited until the news properly sunk in before we made our claim.”
When asked about the family’s plans for their yuletide windfall, the syndicate said that a lot of the members were going to pay off their mortgages first and foremost.
The spokesperson continued: “A few of us are just going to clear our mortgages to start and then we will all settle down and make further spending plans in the New Year. I mean, I collect the money off all the family at the start of every year and when we’re all paying in, you never really expect that a moment like this will actually happen so, even though the good news has sunk in, this is still a surreal moment. I’m looking no further than Christmas time and am looking forward to making it a memorable one with everybody,” they added.
Nearly 30 cent in every €1 spent on Millionaire Raffle, Christmas scratch cards and all National Lottery games go back to Good Causes in the areas of sport, youth, health, welfare, education, arts and heritage. In total more than €5.5 billion has been raised for Good Causes since the National Lottery was established 32 years ago. In 2018 alone, more than €228 million was raised; the equivalent of €625,000 a day in support for local Good Causes in communities across Ireland.