That’s some real capital! Winning €8.3m lottery ticket sold in Cork

SOMEONE from the banks of the lovely Lee will banking a life-changing sum of money pretty soon.

The winning ticket for Saturday’s €8.3million lottery jackpot was sold in a Dunnes Stores in Bishopstown in Cork, it has been revealed.

The winner has not yet come forward but the National Lottery is appealing to all Cork players to check their tickets for the jackpot totalling €8,347,497.

National Lottery chief executive Dermot Griffin said yesterday it was one of the highest Lotto jackpot wins of the year.

‘We are urging the lucky winner to keep the ticket safe until they get to contact one of our claims team.’

The winning numbers for the draw were 3, 4, 5, 19, 26, 43, with a bonus number 24.

However, the lucky winner may be facing an agonising wait to claim their winnings as the National Lottery offices will be closed until tomorrow morning because of the bank holiday. According to a spokeswoman for the National Lottery, the operators of the lottery have no idea who the lucky winner might be and staff don’t expect to know until tomorrow.

The spokeswoman added that staff at the shop which sold the winning ticket are hoping that the winner is local.

Offering advice to the lucky winner the spokeswoman said, ‘If somebody out there is the lucky ticket holder, sign the back of the ticket immediately and keep it safe until they get to Lotto HQ’.

‘Winning this amount of money can be overwhelming as well,’ said the spokeswoman. ‘So if there is someone out there who knows they are the winner, keep calm, enjoy the moment and surround yourself with your closest family and friends and don’t do anything rash in terms of committing to spending that large amount of money.’

This latest win in the Rebel County brings to 174 the total number of jackpot wins in Co. Cork, which according to a recent survey by the National Lottery is the 15th luckiest Lotto county in Ireland with 3.19 Lotto jackpot winners per 10,000 population in the 30-year history of the lotto.

According to same survey, Louth was revealed to be the luckiest lotto county in the country, with 76 jackpot winners over the last 30 years, winning an excess of €89million in total.

This amounts to 5.9 lotto jackpot winners for every 10,000 people.

Louth was followed by Donegal, Mayo, Dublin and Carlow in the top five.

According to the National Lottery, over the last 30 years we have had 1,744 Lotto jackpot winners from all over Ireland scooping prizes totalling over €2.5billion.