A LARGE FAMILY syndicate from Co Mayo are the winners of the largest Lotto jackpot in the history of the game in Ireland, after claiming the €19,060,800 in Dublin today.
The family, who wish to keep their win private, won the jackpot with a Quick Pick ticket they bought at Laura’s XL store in Castlebar town in Co Mayo.
Discussing the exact moment that they realised they had the winning ticket, a spokesperson from the winning family syndicate said “that Saturday night back in January is still a blur”.
There was a lot of excitement about the draw that night, so we watched it on the television at home. I had the ticket in my hand and to see the six numbers come out one after another was like an out of body experience – it’s impossible to explain.
“We didn’t get carried away one bit because we thought that there was no way we could have won it.
“We got the phones out and frantically started scanning it on the National Lottery App. After about 20 minutes, the ticket scanned, and a message popped up that will live with us all for the rest of our lives.
It said, ‘You’ve won big!’ It was such an incredible moment.
As Lotto fever gripped Mayo in the direct aftermath of the win, the family were coming to terms with their life-changing Lotto win.
“One night we were watching the news on TV when somebody in Mayo was interviewed, and they mentioned that they better check their tickets to see if they were the lucky winner.
One of the family shouted at the TV, ‘Don’t bother checking because we’ve got the winning ticket right here’. We all absolutely burst out laughing knowing that all this fuss was being made and we had the winning ticket all along.
The group have taken some time out to consider their plans after claiming the prize, and they have vowed to share their good fortune with those close to them while they also plan on helping community groups and charities which are close to their heart.
It’s such a huge sum of money so as a group, we will be taking as much time as we need to get the right guidance before we make any big decisions. While we all will have our own individual plans, the big thing we want to do is help our wider family, close friends and indeed our community in any way we can.
“Of course, we will be paying off whatever mortgages and loans that we have but we have also drawn up a list of people to help in our communities and we look forward to helping out some charities and organisations in the coming months.
“It really is such an exciting time in our lives and we can’t wait to get started to changing peoples lives,” the family spokesperson added.
The Lotto said that in the time that the jackpot was capped at €19million, €87 million was won in prizes in the main Lotto game, which included almost €24 million in excess jackpot prize funds which were distributed to lower winning prize tiers.
The National Lottery have also confirmed that the Lotto jackpot roll sequence alone raised in excess of €60 million for local ‘Good Causes’ in communities across the country.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say