WORLD'S BIGGEST LOTTERY WIN IN SPAIN

News

Dave Bull / 2009-05-15 10:53:02

yippeee!

One ticket holder is thought to have become the world's biggest lottery winner by scooping £110 million in the EuroMillions jackpot.

If the ticket belongs to one person, rather than a syndicate, they will break the record for the world's biggest lottery jackpot win.

It would mean they would become joint 492nd richest person in Britain, matching the wealth of surviving Bee Gees Robin and Barry Gibb and Renault Formula One boss Flavio Briatore. The previous record for a single ticket winning a jackpot prize was around £81 million in Italy's Superenalotto in October last year. The UK's biggest winner won £244,317.60 for matching five numbers and one Lucky Star, Camelot said. The highest single UK win currently stands at £35.4 million. A National Lottery spokeswoman said: "This huge jackpot has been really exciting for players all over the UK and Europe also who were playing the lottery online.

"Even though a British player wasn't lucky enough to scoop the big one this time, to date over £971 million has been paid out in EuroMillions prize money and more than 61 million EuroMillions prizes have been won in the UK - plus the nation has benefited through the money raised for good causes."

IS YOUR NUMBER UP?

Since the first National Lottery draw took place this month in 1994, more than 2,000 lottery millionaires have been created.

According to Camelot, the National Lottery operator, one in every 23,500 adults in the UK is a millionaire jackpot winner. This year saw history being made when Glasgow postal administrator Angela Kelly scooped the entire £35,425,411 EuroMillions jackpot in August – the UK's biggest ever lottery payout. So far, more than £29bn in prize money has been paid out to lucky winners, and around £20bn has been given to good causes.

However, if you're hoping to join the ranks of those who have won big over the past 13 years, you could be in for a very long wait. If you buy a £1 ticket for the main draw, the odds of hitting the jackpot are just one in 13,983,816.

The overall odds of winning any prize on the main Lotto games, however, are more promising, at 1 in 54. The value of the prizes depends on how many tickets are sold and how many people match the same quantity of numbers. In comparison, the odds of any £1 Premium Bond winning a prize in National Savings & Investments monthly draw are just one in 21,000.

However, with Premium Bonds, even if you don't win, you won't lose your money and your bonds will be re-entered in every monthly draw. You can also withdraw your money at any time.

The return someone with average luck can expect from Premium Bonds is currently 4 per cent tax-free. With the National Lottery, any money that doesn't win a prize is lost forever as soon as the draw is over.
Despite this fact, and even with the odds of hitting the jackpot so slim, seven out of 10 of us continue to play the National Lottery on a regular basis.

It's not hard to see why are we are tempted to keep playing – more than 96 per cent of the UK population either live or work within two miles of a lottery terminal. Indeed, Camelot claims buying lottery tickets is the primary reason for visiting a convenience store on a Wednesday, Friday and Saturday for 16 per cent of shoppers – second only to buying a newspaper at 18 per cent.

Our table shows which balls have proved the luckiest in the main Wednesday and Saturday Lotto draws over the past 13 years. Remember, of course, that past performance is not a guide to how these balls will perform in the future.

Number 38 has proved the most successful ball to date, appearing 182 times as a main ball and 35 times as a bonus ball. Number 25 is the second luckiest ball so far, and has appeared 171 times as a main ball and 33 times as a bonus ball, and numbers 31, 6, 9, and 11 are the next luckiest.

The least lucky ball to date is – rather appropriately – number 13. It has appeared as a main ball just 132 times and as a bonus ball 15 times.

The second least lucky ball is number 41, which has made 127 appearances as a main ball and 25 times as a bonus ball.

Previous winners have used plenty of unusual ways to pick their numbers. One winner, Billy Gibbons, changed the name of his pet chicken "Kiev" to "Lucky" after the bird trampled on his owner's calculator selecting his winning Lotto numbers.

Those who have played the Lottery since it began and have never won can perhaps seek some solace in the fact that money doesn't necessarily bring you any more happiness than the simple pleasures in life.
A recent study by the University of Nottingham has concluded that even with millions in the bank, after the initial spending spree on upgrading their lifestyle, it's the cost-free things in life that keep Britain's Lottery millionaires happy.

Out of a list of 69 items, 86 per cent of winners picked the chance to soak in the bath or listen to music as a treat. They also think reading a book, buying Chocolate or getting a takeaway is the perfect reward at the end of the day.

However, houses, cars and caravans still top the list of lottery winners' top 10 purchases, and the US and Dubai have leapt above Spain as favourite holiday destinations following a win.

Not all winners' money is spent on new homes and cars. The Camelot research shows that 78 per cent of winners have invested a proportion of their winnings in stocks and shares, while 72 per cent have paid some of their prize into their pension, individual savings accounts (Isas) and high-interest savings accounts.

If you forget to check your numbers regularly, remember that with National Lottery wins, you have just six months from the date of your win to collect your prize. After that, the money is donated to charity. With Premium Bonds, there is no time limit on unclaimed prizes, so if you think you have missed one, you can still collect your money whenever you want.

Tags: Lottery, Lotto, Leaderlotto.com