Saturday, October 9, 2010

A winning British EuroMillions lottery ticket worth £113,019,926 (US$180,413,709, €129,421,204) has been claimed. The prize value breaks the previous record for the largest amount of money won in a lottery in the United Kingdom. According to BBC News Online, it is also believed that this is the largest lottery prize ever given to a solitary ticket holder in the country. The winner(s) is/are currently remaining unidentified.

A spokesperson for the Camelot Group, the operator of the lottery in the United Kingdom, proclaimed: “There is one British winner and it’s the biggest jackpot win ever. This is fantastic news — we’re absolutely delighted to have such a massive UK win. It is the biggest lottery jackpot prize ever paid out to an individual in this country. We have plenty of champagne on ice and are looking forward to welcoming the lucky ticketholder to the National Lottery millionaires’ club.”

From 1845 – 1915 BST (1745 – 1815 UTC), some Internet lottery sales were unable to be counted due to technical problems with several banks and the system of Camelot, according to a spokeswoman for the Camelot Group. She said that the situation had been “completely out of our hands”.

The results of the lottery draw were 46, 35, 39, 30 and 09, with the two lucky stars being revealed to be 06 and 08. The total amount of this particular win was slightly less than the largest ever win in the EuroMillions draw of £113,229,891 (US$180,735,283, €129,652,278). That jackpot was claimed by a solitary recipient in Spain in May 2009.