National Lottery HQ was buzzing with excitement after three groups of winners collected prizes in recent days.
Among them was a family syndicate of four from Dublin who were presented with a cheque for €1m which they won in last Saturday’s draw.
They bought the winning ticket at Spar in The Square shopping centre, Tallaght. The head of the syndicate checked the ticket on Sunday morning and couldn’t believe his eyes.
“I burst into my daughter’s room, startling her awake, and said, ‘Here, quick, rub your eyes and check that’,” he said.
His daughter checked the numbers, and the two sat across from each other in shock. He said he hasn’t stopped trembling since discovering their win.
He hid the ticket between T-shirts in his wardrobe and contacted the National Lottery claims team first thing on Monday morning.
When asked if they had any splurge plans, he said: “Nah, I’ll still be shopping in Penneys.”
Another member of the syndicate arrived from a weekend of socialising shortly after they discovered the news.
They said: “Any headache I had from the weekend soon disappeared when I got the news that we’d won €1m.”
Also claiming a significant prize was a syndicate from Cork, which took home €262,554 from the EuroMillions draw on September 3.
The group of four friends have been doing the Lotto together for almost three years and will each receive over €65,000. But they almost didn’t buy the ticket.
One friend said: “Myself and another syndicate member were debating who would buy the ticket. I convinced him I would, as I wanted to grab a chocolate bar. If I’d let him buy it, we’d have missed out on €65,000 each.”
Meanwhile, a player from Kildare collected a cheque for €82,584 after matching five numbers and the bonus in last Saturday’s Lotto. The ticket was purchased at Spar, Newtown, Co Kildare.
