The luck of the Irish! Lottery player in Ireland comes forward to claim £153m EuroMillions jackpot
The Irish winner of the £153m (175 million euro) EuroMillions has come forward to claim their prize after scooping the jackpot on Tuesday night.
The Irish National Lottery confirmed that it had been contacted by the lucky ticket holder.
A spokeswoman said: ‘We can confirm we have heard from the holder of the winning ticket but are not in a position to give any more details at the moment.
‘We hope to be in a position to give details on where the winning ticket was sold later today.’
The win marks the 14th Irish EuroMillions winning ticket since the game began in Ireland in 2004 – and is the biggest in the country’s history.
The winning numbers were 1, 8, 18, 19 and 39. The Lucky Stars were 7 and 9.
National Lottery chief executive Dermot Griffin said: ‘We are delighted the winner has made contact. This is an incredible win for an Irish EuroMillions player. And a record win for the National Lottery. We are thrilled.
‘This has been an incredibly lucky period for players on the island of Ireland.
‘In January a Northern Ireland couple won an amazing 127 million euro in the EuroMillions jackpot. The luck of the Irish is definitely in the air.’
Five other tickets won £275,601 (317,493 euro).
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This record-breaking win tops the £99 million (115 million euro) won by Dolores McNamara, from Limerick, in July 2005.
The second biggest win was in 2008 when a player from Tipperary won £13 million (15 million euro) in 2008.
The EuroMillions jackpot had rolled over for several weeks and nearly reached the maximum payout of £165 million (190 million euro). This maximum jackpot has only been won three times over the history of the game.
EuroMillions is played in nine countries. In the UK, 28p for every £1 is donated to National Lottery good causes – since it began, more than £37 billion has been raised.
