OUR LUCKY NUMBERS
25 years and 4,000 millionaires on, why we’re still gripped by the National Lottery...
FOR 25 years, it has been at the heart of UK life, inspiring hope of riches, transforming lives and investing in projects from Oscar-winning movies to good community causes.
Since the first ball was drawn in the new National Lottery on November 19, 1994, it has created more than 4,000 millionaires across the country – and paid out around £71 billion in prizes.
For many, hitting the jackpot has led to the pursuit of new dreams, while for others the sudden joy of finding they have more money than they know what to do with has resulted in the so-called ‘lottery curse’, leaving a trail of chaos in its wake.
Now, to celebrate the National Lottery’s quarter of a century, the Scottish Mail on Sunday has delved through the archives to reveal fascinating facts and figures about a draw which has gripped the nation since its launch...
526 The number of millionaires created in Scotland since the National Lottery’s launch.
4 Scotland’s luckiest postcodes – Glasgow (G), Edinburgh (EH), Motherwell (ML) and Aberdeen (AB) – which are home to a remarkable 310 of the nation’s 526 National Lottery millionaires.
2 One man has won a jackpot twice in the same draw. Derek Ladner bought two tickets and won on both in 2007.
82 Taking into account everything a winner has done with their money, including spending, saving and gifting, only 82 per cent of winners reveal they are now as – or more – well off than the day they received their winnings.
Wayne Elliot, from Deal, Kent, won a prize every week for the first
26 draws of the National Lottery.
170 The biggest ever lottery win was the EuroMillions capped jackpot last month, when a lucky winner took home £170 million.
29 Cars are the first thing many winners buy after collecting their prize, with 29 per cent of millionaires immediately going for a new set of wheels.
85 The most unusual purchases among lottery winners include: a pair of new hips ‘for the wife’, a narrowboat, tarantulas, a firework company, and next door’s house – before turning it into a pub. But these are only the ones we know about – 85 per cent of winners choose to remain anonymous.
74 Although 74 per cent of millionaires move, they do not always go far. Of those who get the removal man in, 65 per cent stay in the same village or town or within five miles, and a further 13 per cent only move up to ten miles away.
22 22 million people – roughly 40 per cent of the UK population – watched as Noel Edmonds hosted the first draw.
7 But there was mild disappointment when the first draw failed to make someone a millionaire – the jackpot of around £5.9 million was shared by seven winners, with each one winning a shade under £840,000.
42 The first person to become a millionaire in the draw and become a household name was Mukhtar Mohidin, a 42-year-old factory worker who lived with his wife and three children in Blackburn, Lancashire. Within months, however, he had set off on a playboy lifestyle which would see his marriage fall apart. He died penniless in 2017, aged 66, from ‘good living’ and is now buried in an unmarked grave.
133 The most winners for a single jackpot was 133 in January 1995, with each player scooping £122,510.
17
Britain’s youngest EuroMillions winner is Jane Park, from Edinburgh, who was just 17 when she won £1 million after buying her first ever lottery ticket in 2013. 125
Glasgow is the place to live in Scotland if you want to scoop the jackpot, as 125 millionaires have been made since launching. In second place is Edinburgh, with 85 wins. 19
Binman Michael Carroll was just 19 when he won £9.7 million in 2002 – but within ten years he had blown the lot on wild parties, drugs and alcohol. He now works as a coalman in Moray. 10
The Queen reportedly won £10 on the first Lottery, prompting the headline, ‘One’s won’. 894 If you are looking for where you are most likely to win a prize of more than £50,000, the map of National Lottery luck alters. Some 40,000 prizes of £50,000 or more have been won by players – and Galashiels, Roxburghshire, comes in tops with one in every 894 adults banking a big prize.
75
Roughly 75 per cent of players still buy their tickets in stores, with only 25 per cent playing online – something of a surprise in the digital age. 14
The most popular place to hide a winning ticket is a bag, wallet or purse, with 14 per cent of winners doing this. 27
Man’s best friend seems to be the perfect companion for the millionaire lifestyle. Some per cent of winners buy a dog after their win, and 6 per cent splash out on a horse –but only
2 per cent get a cat. 34
More than £34 million goes to National Lottery projects every week. 100
Lottery-funded films, which include The King’s Speech, Billy Elliot and The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, have won a total of 100 Baftas, 15 Oscars and 29 awards at the Cannes Film Festival. 99
99 per cent of winners surveyed still play National Lottery games after their win, with 70 per cent convinced they will win again. 53
The Lanarkshire town of Motherwell is the fourth luckiest place in the UK, according to Lottery bosses. It’s seen 53 players become overnight millionaires and, last year, a syndicate of 15 nurses from Cleland Hospital scooped £1 million from the EuroMillions UK Millionaire maker draw. They took home £66,666 each. 6 Statistically, the most likely winning six numbers (as in the most commonly drawn) are 38, 23, 31, 25, 43, 33 and 44. Despite this, the most common numbers chosen are lower than these – chiefly because people pick memorable birthdays and anniversaries. 161 Until last month, the largest sterling amount won in the EuroMillions jackpot was £161 million by Colin and Christine Weir, from Largs, Ayrshire, in
July 2011. They divorced two months ago. 3
The results show has been cancelled just three times – the first as a mark of respect upon the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, the second out of respect for the passing of Queen Elizabeth the
Queen Mother, and the third to mark the first anniversary of 9/11. 350 Defying odds of 350 billion to one, a family from Tipton, West Midlands, has had three jackpot wins, with a total value of £3.25 million.