‘Forgotten’ Lotto prize guaranteed to make Irish gambler a Christmas millionaire

A FORGOTTEN £1million lottery prize is guaranteed to make one punter a Christmas millionaire this weekend.

This additional prize comes from a ‘forgotten’ €1 million prize that went unclaimed after a player missed the deadline to claim a prize last November.

The Monaghan player had initially won the €1,000,500 prize at the Lotto Plus Raffle on Saturday 19^eAugust.

And the National Lottery has confirmed it will host a special ‘guaranteed to win’ Lotto Plus Raffle event on Saturday to give away the life-changing amount.

This prize is added to the Lotto Plus lottery, which usually has between 60 and 120 winners of €500 in each draw.

During the Christmas draw, one of these lottery winners will increase their winnings by a further €1 million.

Each of the tickets with the winning Lotto Plus Raffle number drawn in Saturday evening’s draw will be entered into a one-time random draw.

And one of those lucky tickets will be selected to win the guaranteed prize.

A National Lottery spokesperson said: “We were incredibly disappointed when this player in Monaghan failed to collect his €1 million Lotto prize last November.

“However, we are thrilled to be able to return this prize to our players, especially just before Christmas where one person is guaranteed to become a millionaire!”

They continued: “This weekend will be life-changing, with one Lotto Plus player GUARANTEED to become a millionaire.

“In Saturday evening’s draw, one winner of the Lotto Plus Raffle will win €1 million on top of the usual lottery prize of €500.

“We remind all our Lotto players hoping to become millionaires this weekend that tickets can be purchased in store, via the National Lottery App or at www.lottery.ie before the 7.45pm cut-off time for the Saturday night sale .”

It comes after an urgent check ticket warning was issued by Lotto bosses after another punter failed to come forward to collect their winnings.

MAP ALERT

A Lotto player in the Portumna area of ​​Galway has been urged to come forward and claim his prize worth a whopping €24,224 won in the October 7 Lotto draw.

The Galway player shared the Match 5+Bonus prize of €48,448 with a Dublin player after purchasing his winning Quick Pick ticket on the day of the draw from Desmond Salmon on Patrick Street in Portumna.

The winning numbers in the Lotto draw on Saturday October 7 were 23, 25, 28, 32, 33, 44 and the bonus was 29.

As ticket holders have 90 days from the draw date to claim their prize, the deadline to claim this Match 5 + Bonus prize is the closing date on Friday 5 January 2024.

A National Lottery spokesperson has urged Lotto players who may have bought their tickets in Galway for the October 7 draw to check their old tickets as soon as possible to avoid missing out on this €24,224 prize.

They said: “A Lotto player in Galway will hopefully celebrate Christmas early by claiming a €24,224 prize he won in October.”

Almost €19 million in National Lottery prizes went unclaimed in 2022 after punters failed to present their winning tickets within 90 days of the draw.

A total of €106.8 million in profits have not been collected over the past six years.

Under the terms of the license, Premier Lotteries Ireland may retain any prize money unclaimed after 90 days for marketing lottery products.