Record Online Lotto Win Claimed
A group of friends from Leinster are celebrating becoming instant millionaires together after winning the Lotto jackpot of €7,179,959 from online play.
The small syndicate, whose numbers came up on the draw from Wednesday February 21st, are the fifth and highest online Lotto Jackpot winners to date.
The delighted pals said they are coming to terms with their new-found good fortune and have no plans to share their news with anyone outside their group.
Each member of the winning syndicate, who wish to remain anonymous, normally take it in turns to buy Lotto tickets in their local shop. But on this occasion the head of the syndicate bought the winning quick pick through the National Lottery app.
One syndicate member described how he was the first to realise they had won.
He said: “I heard on the news while I was driving that the Lotto was won by an online player. My heart skipped a beat and I pulled over and checked the numbers against ours, and they were matching! I sat in the car for a few minutes unable to process what was happening. Eventually I just rang the other members and started spreading the word,”
The head of the syndicate said: “It’s a surreal feeling but it is absolutely fantastic to share this experience with my friends. Even though we aren’t going to tell anyone else about our stroke of luck, this is something we will have forever with each other. It was funny, I checked my phone this morning and saw 32 missed calls from the other members of the syndicate. The last thing I expected was the news that we had won the Lottery – I was expecting bad news to be honest.”
Thousands of National Lottery players win on draw based and instant win games each week but this Lotto Jackpot win is the fifth ever through online play since the National Lottery launched its play online platform in 2009. The previous highest win was in February 2010 when a Co. Dublin syndicate claimed a €5.5 million Lotto jackpot. In total more than €20 million has been won online through Lotto Jackpots.
Online EuroMillions players have also been very lucky. A total of nine players have won the EuroMillions Plus top prize of €5,000,000, while another EuroMillions player won a €632,452 EuroMillions Match 5 + Lucky Star prize in September 2010. Want to share that winning feeling? Tomorrow night’s EuroMillions jackpot is €17 million (estimated). Play in-store, online or using the National Lottery App on your smartphone.
Nearly 30 cent in every €1 spent on 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 Billion has been raised for Good Causes since the National Lottery was established 30 years ago. In 2017 alone, the National Lottery raised over €225 million for such good causes.