A LOTTO syndicate was overjoyed to claim their massive €2.4million fortune after nearly giving up on their dreams of winning big.
The Co Louth group had a Saturday night to remember last weekend after purchasing the winning ticket that scooped them €2,418,002 at Tesco in the Longwalk shopping centre in Dundalk.
The Wee County winners scooped the life-changing amount in the July 15 Lotto draw.
And they admitted that they were in total shock when they saw their numbers appear on screen – and if it wasn’t for horrendous weather last weekend, they might never have won.
One member of the syndicate, who purchased the ticket, said: “I was watching the draw live and ticking our numbers off as they came out.
“I really couldn’t believe it when all of our numbers were on the screen in front of me!
“I was checking and double checking and checking again. I had to make sure I wasn’t dreaming!
“It’s surreal to think that we were the only people in the entire country to have the winning numbers last weekend.”
The group became the eighth Lotto jackpot winners of 2023 following wins by players in Limerick, 2, Dublin, 2, Meath, Donegal and Westmeath.
But the lucky winners admitted that the massive cash prize may have slipped past them if it wasn’t for two things – including the weather.
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They said: “For a few weeks, I was actually thinking of stopping the syndicate.
“There’s a lot of organising that goes into it and we had never won big before so I was thinking to myself, is it really worth it?
“We decided to keep going with it for the time being and thank goodness we did.
“Imagine if we had have given up – we certainly wouldn’t be sitting here in the Winners Room, that’s for sure.
“I feel like the awful weather last week played a big part in our win. As I got to the shop to buy our Quick Pick ticket, the rain was pouring down so there wasn’t a chance I was getting out of the car in that.”
‘MEANT TO BE’
The winner added: “I had to sit and wait for a while to let it ease off.
“To think, if it hadn’t have been such a wet and dreary day, I might have ended up going into the shop even earlier which could have resulted in us not getting our particular Quick Pick ticket.
“It was obviously meant to be!”
Meanwhile, tonight’s EuroMillions jackpot is set to roll towards an estimated €40million.
Players dreaming of becoming the next big winners to visit Lotto HQ are advised that tickets can be purchased ahead of the 7.30pm cut-off time for sales in-store and online.
Nearly 30c in every €1 spent on all National Lottery games goes back to Good Causes in the areas of sport, youth, health, welfare, education, arts, heritage, and the Irish Language.
In total more than €6billion has been raised for Good Causes since the National Lottery was established 35 years ago. In 2021 alone, €304million was raised for local Good Causes in communities across Ireland.
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