National Lottery players urged to check their tickets after one scoops £20m jackpot – and another wins £1m
NATIONAL Lottery players have been urged to check their tickets after one scooped a £20m jackpot.
The single ticket-holder matched all six numbers in Saturday night’s latest draw, operators Camelot revealed.
The six winning numbers were 1, 12, 20, 22, 24 and 35.
And a second punter netted £1m by matching five numbers as well as bonus ball 35.
Last night’s was one of the National Lottery‘s “Must Be Won” draws, with jackpot experts urging more people to get involved than usual.
The first National Lottery draw was held on November 19 1994 when seven winners shared a jackpot of £5,874,778.
The largest amount ever to be won by a single ticket-holder was £42m, won in 1996.
Gareth Bull, a 49-year-old builder, pocketed £41m in November 2020 and ended up knocking down his bungalow to make way for a luxury manor house with a pool.
The biggest jackpot ever for grabs was £66m in January last year, shared between two fortunate ticket-holders.
Dukinfield near Manchester has been identified as the luckiest place in the UK to play the lottery.
The town landed the Millionaire Street prize last week handing residents £55,555 each – after the area also took a cut of a £3m Postcode Millions windfall five years ago.
Lotto players were also last week encouraged to check their tickets as it emerged a £10,000-per-month prize has still not been claimed – and the winning area was revealed.
One lucky punter matched the five main numbers in the Set For Life draw on June 8.
Lotto bosses revealed the winning ticket was bought in the Scottish city of Dundee.
The matching ticket-holder has until December 5 this year to claim their £10,000-a-month prize.
Anyone not in possession of their ticket, for whatever reason, but who believes they have a genuine claim can still make a claim in writing to Camelot – but it must be within 30 days of the draw.
It follows a similar appeal after another Set For Life prize-winning ticket remained unclaimed, having been bought in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire.
And a Lotto-winning ticket worth £1m was unclaimed after being bought in Co Antrim, Northern Ireland.
The latest EuroMillions draw – offering a jackpot prize of £34m – was made on Friday night.
Britain’s biggest lottery winners include Joe and Jess Thwaite, from Gloucestershire, who scooped £184m in a EuroMillions draw in May last year.
A previous winner who took home £170m remained anonymous.
Also cashing in have been Colin and Christine Weir, pocketing £161m, Adrian and Gillian Bayford claiming £148.6m and Frances and Patrick Connolly who netted £114.9m.
Mum-of-three Frances has donated much of the money to charity and is thought to have spent £50m on family and friends.