County won €800,000 in Prize Bonds prizes

PRIZE Bonds holders in County Wicklow won more than €0.8 million in prizes last year, making the Garden County one of the luckiest counties in 2016.

In its 2016 annual report, The Prize Bond Company Limited, which administers Prize Bonds on behalf of the National Treasure Management Agency, revealed that 15,326 prizes were won in the county last year, generating total winnings of €855,000.

Every quarter a Prize Bonds customer wins a €1 million prize on the last draw of every quarter (March, June, September and December), meaning four lucky winners found themselves €1m richer in 2016. A top prize of €50,000 is awarded in every other weekly draw as well as other cash prizes to the value of €1,000, €500 and €50.

Strong sales in 2016 contributed to an almost 17 per cent increase in the Prize Bond fund value to over €2.894 billion, the highest in the history of the scheme. Gross sales in 2016 were €670 million, reflecting continued confidence and interest, while repayments of Prize Bonds during the year totalled €252 million, representing a marginal decrease of 0.1 per cent on last year’s repayments.

Currently over 7,000 prizes are issued weekly and the number of cash prizes, worth €28 million, won by customers in 2016 was 392,176.