LOTTO returned tonight with another huge balance-busting prize up for the taking by one lucky Brit ticketholder.
The lottery jackpot tonight was an estimated £9 million after no-one scooped the top prize on Saturday.
The winning Lotto numbers are 04, 22, 26, 27 33 & 37, while the all-important Bonus Ball is 20.
Please gamble responsibly. And when the fun stops, stop.
Read our National Lottery live blog for the latest results…
Any cash that isn’t claimed after a total of 180 days from a game played in the UK goes to National Lottery projects across the country.
Folks in Ireland have just half that time to claim too, with only 90 days before the prize money is off the table.
Once the claim period is over, the ticket officially expires and the owner of the lottery ticket will no longer be able to claim any of their winnings.
But after that time has expired, any unclaimed prizes, plus any interest they might have accumulated in that time, are allocated to the National Lottery’s Good Causes fund instead.
This will usually then go on to help fund things like sport programmes or local community buildings or other projects.
James Courtemanche, 43, from Ontario, can’t believe his luck after scooping over £110,000 in cash from two tickets bought the Minnow Lake Kwik Way in Sudbury, Canada.
He was left gobsmacked to score a sweet $88,888 (£51,883) in 2021 – only to win a second sum totalling $100,000 (£58,369) this year.
James said: “I couldn’t believe it happened again.
“I was so surprised – and then I remembered good things happen in threes, so I’m ready for my next one.”
James bought an Instant Wild 8 ticket from his local store before heading home and making the life-changing discovery.
He couldn’t believe his own luck, but confirmed the prize by checking the ticket on the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation app,
It was only in August that he’d paid a visit to Canada’s lottery headquarters to collect his winnings from an earlier purchase at Minnow Lake Kwik Way on Brancroft Drive.
His Instant Money Match card sealed the fate to his first jackpot before he went on to buy the second ticket from the same store.
A WOMAN who scooped £10,000 a month for 30 years on the National Lottery Set For Life quit her job to become a ghost hunter with her husband.
Part-time paranormal investigator Laura Hoyle, 39, has decided to ditch her day job to pursue her spooky passion with Kirk Stevens, 37, after their big win.
The 39-year-old is used to shocks – after realising she had landed the life-changing amount of money when she initially thought she had only won a fiver.
Laura was able to immediately jack in her job at a logistics firm, after realising the cash could allow her to concentrate on her ghost-hunting hobby full-time.
Read more here.
The National Lottery operate a ‘Healthy Play’ policy and monitor behavioural patterns in players.
The National Lottery released the following statement, “We know that extraordinary things happen when lots of people play a little. We’re proud to say that around 60% of UK adults enjoy our games, so encouraging healthy play is at the heart of everything we do. The way we design our games and tools helps put you in control of your play.
“To keep players safe online, we use an in-house behavioural analytics model. This identifies at-risk players, enabling us to support them through targeted interventions.”
The winning numbers are 1, 7, 19, 24 and 30.
The all-important Thunderball is 14.
Tonight's Lotto draw has just taken place.
The winning numbers are 04, 22, 26, 27 33 and 37.
And the all-important Bonus Ball is 20.
The National Lottery draw takes place at 8pm sharp.
Tonight's prize? A staggering £9m for one lucky tickeytholder.
We will publish the winning numbers here just moments after they are released.
Good luck!
Any cash that isn’t claimed after a total of 180 days from a game played in the UK goes to National Lottery projects across the country.
Folks in Ireland have just half that time to claim too, with only 90 days before the prize money is off the table.
Once the claim period is over, the ticket officially expires and the owner of the lottery ticket will no longer be able to claim any of their winnings.
But after that time has expired, any unclaimed prizes, plus any interest they might have accumulated in that time, are allocated to the National Lottery’s Good Causes fund instead.
This will usually then go on to help fund things like sport programmes or local community buildings or other projects.
Not all lottery winners have such modest tastes including Lotto lout Michael Carroll who bagged £9.7million in 2002.
The former binman, who was branded the ‘King of Chavs’, blew his hefty fortune on “drugs, sex and gold”.
Callie Rogers, who at 16 became Britain’s youngest lottery winner in 2003, spent thousands of her £1.9m jackpot on wild parties, three boob jobs, designer clothes and drugs.
And Lee Ryan, who scooped £6.5m in 1995, ended up penniless and spent two years living on the street after blowing his cash on luxury cars, a helicopter and a £2m home.EditDelete
The first National Lottery draw was held on November 19 1994 when seven winners shared a jackpot of £5,874,778.
The largest amount ever to be won by a single ticket holder was £42million, won in 1996.
Gareth Bull, a 49-year-old builder, won £41million in November, 2020 and ended up knocking down his bungalow to make way for a luxury manor house with a pool.
The game with the best odds, in terms of winning the top prize, is the Thunderball.
According to the National Lottery website, the odds of winning the jackpots are:
For many, winning the jackpot means mass celebrations and ultra-expensive cars – but not for Susan Hardman.
When the mum-of-one’s numbers came up in January 2010 she worked as a hairdresser in Eardisley, Hereford, and was “struggling financially”.
Instead of splashing out when the £1.2million win landed in her bank account, she traded in her scissors for overalls and became a pig farmer.
Susan claimed to be happier than ever knee-deep in mud and said bringing a piglet into the world brought her “more satisfaction” than winning the lottery.
Christine Lauzon actually won $70million in the lottery back in October, however, a Facebook page under her name promised to send out money to people in need.
An investigation into the situation resulted in the British Columbia Lottery Corporation reaching out to Lauzon, who confirmed that the account using her name and photo was fake.
A post on the fake page claimed that they had “voluntarily decided to help people financially,”
One woman in Fiji responded to the post asking for $1,000 to fix her roof. She asked to not be identified to protect her privacy.
“When there’s heavy rain, the water always enters the house. Like half the house it enters inside,” the woman said.
The scammer offered to send the woman $100,000 if she sent $300 in Bitcoin first. The potential victim was attempting to raise the money when she was contacted by CTV News, who told her that it was a scam.
“I was really happy because nobody has ever offered me that amount of money before,” she said, saying the thought of receiving that much money would be life-changing.
A grand total of £10,787,717 has been raised by players this week.
Since 1994 when the National Lottery was set up, players like you have helped raise more than £45BNBillion for good causes.
That’s everything from heritage sites like Stonehenge to grassroots organisations working to end loneliness and isolation.
During 2021, more than 660,000 individual grants were made to good causes across the UK – the equivalent of around 235 in every UK postcode district.
2021 was also an extraordinary year for National Lottery winners. A total of 360 players joined the exclusive millionaires club last year – that’s nearly 1 new millionaire every single day.
Have you ever wondered the secrets to winning big in the lottery? Is it pure luck or is there a system to it…?
Here’s a timetable for all UK lottery games including Lotto, EuroMillions and Set For Life.
There is a draw six nights a week.
It should be noted that there are no draws on Sundays.
Winning £1m was sheer luck for Jamie Heavens, who purchased a Millionaire Riches Scratchcard after watching a customer in front of him do it.
After leaving the petrol station, he pulled into a layby to scratch it off and was gobsmacked when he won.
However, hardworking Jamie, from Bournemouth, had no intention of quitting his day job.
Jamie told the Mirror: “It was 7.30 in the morning and I still had a day’s shift ahead… I won a million pounds and earned another £100 for my shift.”
After that the roofer and his fiance Danielle spent £25,000 on a lavish wedding with “a band, a videographer and a massive marquee”.
He bought a business but feels rather happy about his new job, adding: “I still work but now I’m my own boss!”
A MAN who won £250,000 on a lottery scratchcard later conned his OAP mum out of tens of thousands of pounds.
Barry Perryman, 41, won the six-figure sum with his parents seven years ago.
But within months he was abusing his role as his mother’s carer to transfer money from her bank account, a court heard in June this year.
Perryman, who arrived at court in a wheelchair with his leg in plaster, admitted a four-year long fraud when he appeared at Plymouth Crown Court.
He was in a syndicate with dad Roy and mum Christine Perryman when they won £250,000 on a scratchcard bought from a Londis store in Keyham, Devon in September 2014.
The defendant bought the winning ticket, matching four numbers on a Winning 7s card.
ONE of Britain’s biggest EuroMillions winners has won a bid to gag his former mistress after she wrote a book about their holiday romance.
Gareth Bull, 50, was married to wife Catherine when he scooped almost £41million in 2012.
But Gareth has now won a battle for a restraining order against his lover that bans her from bringing legal action against him, the Mirror reports.
She claimed she had a right to publicly speak out on their tryst to defend allegations she was a “gold digger”.
Read more here.
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