A Kildare family has told how they “took a notion” to play the Lotto last week and ended up winning a life-changing sum.
The family syndicate used the common Lotto trick of picking numbers using birthday dates and it certainly paid off.
They won a whopping €1 million on the Daily Millions game and are now millionaires, however they will be splitting the sum among the syndicate of seven.
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The head of the syndicate, which was set up in 2016, said: “What’s crazy was, I took a notion on that Tuesday to play the Daily Millions game and for some reason, I’ve no idea why, but I took out a line and put one with all the numbers of our birthdays on it. It’s just wild to think that flippant decision resulted in us winning €1 million!”
They bought the winning ticket for the Tuesday, May 23 draw on the National Lottery app. After finding out they had won, they were so shocked they thought it was a hoax.
Speaking today as they picked up their winnings in Lotto HQ, he added: “I actually thought it was a hoax when I went on to the app and saw I’d won €1 million. All those zeros – it just couldn’t be real! But I contacted the National Lottery prize claims team the following morning and they confirmed it all for me.
"I rang up the rest of the syndicate and it's safe to say they all had different reactions. Some we’re in complete disbelief, some shouted expletives on the phone to me and some cried!”
The family are now looking forward to hosting a private celebration amongst themselves to mark the momentous occasion.
Another syndicate member said: “It’s a real feel-good factor to share something like this with family.”
Another laughed: “I won’t charge for babysitting all of your kids anymore.”
Meanwhile another Daily Millions winner from the May 16 draw also popped into Lotto HQ today to pick up their prize of €1 million.
The Donegal player bought their ticket at Kelly’s Centra, Mountain Top in Letterkenny.
The winner admitted that it was a few days before they even realised just how much their ticket was worth.
They said: “I was walking around with the ticket in my pocket for a few days before I even checked it. I had no idea it was a winner and no clue how much it was actually worth. I decided to scan it on the app, not thinking anything of it, and then saw the pop-up message saying ‘Congratulations’. It didn’t say how much I had won so I called the Claims team from there and the rest is history.”
Daily Million draws take place twice a day, seven days a week at 2pm and 9pm and costs €1 per play.
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