Wee County is biggest winner for Lotto jackpots

IT IS Ireland’s smallest county but the people of Louth are big on Lotto luck, figures reveal.

Louth has had more Lottery jackpot winners per head of population than any other county, scooping a grand total of more than €89m in the past 30 years.

The Wee County’s good fortune has been revealed in newly released figures analysing the 2016 Census. With a population of 128,884, Louth had 76 jackpot wins.

Donegal was second on the list, with 90 wins worth more than €116m spread over a 159,192 population.

Mayo was third, with 58 wins from a 130,507 population, sharing €103m in prizes.

Dublin was fourth, with 572 lottery winners scooping more than €856m for a population of 1,347,359.

The Luckiest Lotto Counties Survey found Co Laois emerged as the “unluckiest county in Ireland”.

The county has had only 13 jackpot winners, with prizes totalling €24m, since 1988. That is 1.53 Lotto winners per 10,000 inhabitants.

The statistics were collated from Lottery jackpot wins running from October 1988 until May 2018.

Wednesday’s Lotto jackpot will be one of the highest this year at €7.5m.

For every €1 spent on all National Lottery games, 30c goes into its Good Causes fund, financing sport, youth, health, community, the arts, heritage and the Irish language.

Last year, €226m was raised for the fund.