Lottery winners - Anyone you know?

CUCINA

Does anyone know anyone who won anything substantial on either lottery tickets or the Lotto itself? Maybe when the Lottery tickets were first launched there might have been some big winners to kick-start the mania but I'd say it must be a very rare event now.
As an aside, I was at the launch of the Lottery card in the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, would have been in the late eighties. I was standing a few feet away from Charles Haughey, with Ray Burke standing beside him. (I remember being surprised at the time at how small in stature they were!). Anyway, Charlie released a huge net of baloons into the air. Some of the baloons had lottery tickets taped onto them so there was a "grushy" among the crowd to find them. I got a few of them. You would then post them off and have a small bottle of wine for each card sent to your house a couple of weeks later.
Getting back to the point, I have never heard of anyone winning more than a fiver on a lottery ticket BUT I did know someone who won over a million pounds on the Lotto, and that was when a million pounds was a million pounds, probably equivalent to around three million euros now. Before his big win he was a work colleague of mine and we were good friends inside and outside of work. Later, we went to separate jobs and gradually lost regular contact.
I was amazed then to see him years later with his wife on the Six o'Clock news being presented with the big cheque. It was almost surreal. He was asked what he was going to do with the money and he was so excited all he could think of saying was something like, "I don't know, I'm all confused!" After the clip was shown the news-reader, Anne Doyle, said, "well, that's a nice kind of confusion".
I was really happy for them because they were a lovely family. The ironic thing about it is that he was a whizz at maths and he used to give private grinds to students studying calculus. But the winning numbers he chose were simply based on his kid's birthdays!
I rang them a couple of weeks later to congratulate them. I spoke to his wife who was very calm about it at that stage and she was saying that they weren't going to go mad with it, that they wanted to give the kids a good education. I never got to speak to my ex-colleague, he had just left a few minutes earlier.

PauloMN

Sorry, meant to post this on the "After Hours" forum! Can it be moved?

Lol, was wondering are there a load of lottery winners hiding in Meath somewhere?

blueovalmk2

you rang him to scab money an not to congratulate him!!:D

CUCINA

blueovalmk2 wrote: »

you rang him to scab money an not to congratulate him!!:D

Actually, you raise an interesting point because I hesitated at first to ring them for exactly that reason...in case they thought I was the phone version of a begging letter! That is why I left it for a while before I rang them. And that raises another issue; how do you react to friends and more particularly to acquaintances when you famously come into a few bob? In the case of this family, I heard that they had to move house because of how other people (mainly their neighbours) reacted to them rather than the other way round. To give an example, the lotto winners were in a local restaurant soon after they won and there was another family a few tables away who lived near them. One of the kids from the Lotto winnering family (I am deliberately avoiding mentioning their names just in case their identity is compromised!) was coming back from the loo passing by this table and overheard the neighbours say something like, "Wouldn't you think they'd pay for our meal seeing as we've known them for years?". The child reported this to her parents and this turned out to be one of the reasons they decided to move house,
I learned of this particular incident from another person I knew who lived in the same estate as them and who also knew them.
So it just goes to show some of the complications that can arise in situations like this...

Dubh Geannain

I know a guy won half a million pounds bout 15 years ago. Not in Meath though

chewed

I know this guy who is loaded! His dad just handed over his extremely successful business to him to run and he then bought a scratch card and won £10,000 (pounds!!!). Life is not fair sometimes.

CUCINA

Maybe all the lottery winners have emigrated....

My name is URL

Who needs money when you have walls of text?

El Weirdo

Seriously, OP. Paragraphs.

Who needs money when you have crooked politicians.

stovelid

I went to school with a girl whose parents won a few million (after we'd left school). Quite a few years ago though.

Also closely know somebody who won 250K a year or two back but that's probably not so big.

ChewChew

A family member of mine won IRL£3 million back in the day!

Ostrom

Worked with a guy a few years back (bit of a tool...) who won 250,000. Quit work the following week, spent most of it on a lotus of some sort, crashed it and ended up broke within a few months.

mud

I've got 2 'Hampers and Roses' tickets here,

I'll let you know if I win big!

CUCINA

El Weirdo wrote: »

Seriously, OP. Paragraphs.

I plead guilty.



Ironically, long paragraphs are one of my pet hates also.



I think I've learned my lesson now!

mud

mud wrote: »

I've got 2 'Hampers and Roses' tickets here,

I'll let you know if I win big!

€5.

WeWillBeReborn

Last Friday I won €12 in the Euromillions draw. Bought four Deal Or No Deal scratchcards, and won €10 and a ticket to send in to try and get on the show.

Happy days

El Weirdo

mud wrote: »

€5.

*Thanks post in the hope that I'll get a cut.*

DonJose

A girl in my class, her father won £4 Million over 10 years ago. The father was from Hong Kong and owned a Chinese restaurant prior to winning the lotto.

InKonspikuou2

My neighbors won the lotto just before the world cup that was in the US. Sole wins and around a million pounds. And a fella i went to college won it twice. Well his family did.

SV

heh.

Michellenman

CUCINA wrote: »

.... so there was a "grushy" among the crowd to find them...

wtf is a grushy? It's GUSHY!!

byrner51

my dad won 12 euro ha.but family around corner from me won a couple of million!!

monkeypants

CUCINA wrote: »

Charles Haughey

He just thought that he'd won the lottery. In reality, the money wasn't his.

mud

El Weirdo wrote: »

*Thanks post in the hope that I'll get a cut.*

*slips El Weirdo a shiny euro*

Hammer Archer

For anyone who knows the Ratoath/Ashbourne area in Meath, the guy who owns the Snail Box Restaurant near Curragha, won the Lotto jackpot in the shop my mother works in (he's also friends with her).
A few years later the same guys mother won the jackpot in the exact same shop.
Talk about a lucky family or what.

hinault

CUCINA wrote: »

Does anyone know anyone who won anything substantial on either lottery tickets or the Lotto itself? Maybe when the Lottery tickets were first launched there might have been some big winners to kick-start the mania but I'd say it must be a very rare event now.
As an aside, I was at the launch of the Lottery card in the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, would have been in the late eighties. I was standing a few feet away from Charles Haughey, with Ray Burke standing beside him. (I remember being surprised at the time at how small in stature they were!). Anyway, Charlie released a huge net of baloons into the air. Some of the baloons had lottery tickets taped onto them so there was a "grushy" among the crowd to find them. I got a few of them. You would then post them off and have a small bottle of wine for each card sent to your house a couple of weeks later.
Getting back to the point, I have never heard of anyone winning more than a fiver on a lottery ticket BUT I did know someone who won over a million pounds on the Lotto, and that was when a million pounds was a million pounds, probably equivalent to around three million euros now. Before his big win he was a work colleague of mine and we were good friends inside and outside of work. Later, we went to separate jobs and gradually lost regular contact.
I was amazed then to see him years later with his wife on the Six o'Clock news being presented with the big cheque. It was almost surreal. He was asked what he was going to do with the money and he was so excited all he could think of saying was something like, "I don't know, I'm all confused!" After the clip was shown the news-reader, Anne Doyle, said, "well, that's a nice kind of confusion".
I was really happy for them because they were a lovely family. The ironic thing about it is that he was a whizz at maths and he used to give private grinds to students studying calculus. But the winning numbers he chose were simply based on his kid's birthdays!
I rang them a couple of weeks later to congratulate them. I spoke to his wife who was very calm about it at that stage and she was saying that they weren't going to go mad with it, that they wanted to give the kids a good education. I never got to speak to my ex-colleague, he had just left a few minutes earlier.

I know someone who won the British lottery!

jenny2hat

Unfortunately not...:o

Stevecw

Anybody who actually managed to read through the OP's post deserves to win the Lotto in my opinion!

120_Minutes

I used to go out with a girl whos uncle won a couple mill on the UK lottery (before i met her) we went to visit them in the UK, and while they lived pretty well (nice house in the country) they were still owning a business and running it themselves.

i remember when i first met him, he was watching a rugby match on a big screen tv in his large living room, and said there was beer in the fridge, help myself. turned around and there a wet bar at my disposal.


it was that day i started working towards my future career: lottery winner.

dubtom

It always amazes me when big lottery winners go public. I'm guessing with excitement it's hard to keep your gob shut but in this day and age there's no excuse for taking the rumoured extra 50K to get your pic in the paper, for every thieving hoar in the country to see ya. I'll certainly tell no one on Saturday when I win.

larchielads

my mam got 1st 5 numbers in the lotto about 11-12 yrs ago and all she won was 725 pound.......thats a joke for 5 numbers.....one number away from a few mill

my best mate a while back was short 1 number for lotto plus 1 draw to win 350,000 euro. the number he needed was on the 2nd line all he got was 350 euro.......again a joke for 5 numbers

Pride Fighter

I won 60 euro on it once for 4 numbers. The other 2 numbers I missed out on were 1 away from being correct. I have not won anything more than that since.

Theta

If I won I woulndt tell a soul except my close family.

I reckon people would treat you different. Apart from that I dont know anyone who has won it.

Maybe that means its my time to win!

ibarelycare

Hammer Archer wrote: »

For anyone who knows the Ratoath/Ashbourne area in Meath, the guy who owns the Snail Box Restaurant near Curragha, won the Lotto jackpot in the shop my mother works in (he's also friends with her).
A few years later the same guys mother won the jackpot in the exact same shop.
Talk about a lucky family or what.

I was just going to post that story. Damnit...nothing to add now!

fonda

I know of 2 different people who have one, my partners aunt won the main jackpot and a friend of a friend one twice both in the couple of hundred thousands

Dont know anyone that's ever won more than a tenner on scratchcards but!!

Quackles

My mammy won £500 on a scratch card about 18 years ago. That was a great day She bought me a PERM!

I did know a lotto millionaire, too, but not well, only knew him to see him.

Quackles

dubtom wrote: »

It always amazes me when big lottery winners go public. I'm guessing with excitement it's hard to keep your gob shut but in this day and age there's no excuse for taking the rumoured extra 50K to get your pic in the paper, for every thieving hoar in the country to see ya. I'll certainly tell no one on Saturday when I win.

True, but you know well people would find out anyway. The time and shop the ticket was bought in are released, all of a sudden Tom quits his job, buys a new house and car.. 2+2 usually equals 4.

r3nu4l

A guy around the corner from my parents won €5million one year, jimself and the wife had four kids and like my parents didn't have a huge amount of money so I was delighted for them...and also secretly very jealous...who do they think they are winning the lotto, why couldn't we win the Lotto?

TanG411

I won €25 on a €1 Allcash before (my claim to fame).

And I know a family friend who won €250,000 on Lotto Plus 2 about nine months ago. I don't think he did much with it. He went on a holiday, bought a new car and big TV.
But he never changed a bit. Didn't get snobby about it. He never changed his personality. And I haven't changed my opinion on him.

gaz wac

For those of use who dont like to read short novels , what the OP is trying to say is

Do you know anyone who won the Lotto?

SuperGrover

Michellenman wrote: »

wtf is a grushy? It's GUSHY!!

It was grushy where I grew up.

ChillyJilly

When Lotto Plus first came out, a guy I know was buying his lotto ticket and was asked did he want to pay the extra for lotto plus, he said no (he hadnt heard of it before), turns out he would have won about 300,000 if he had paid the extra euro... sickener.

Friends of my parents won about 5 million a few years ago... they never admitted it (even to family) but everyone knows they definitely won. Never went "public", didnt move house or anything, but it was clear from the apartments the kids suddenly bought, the big extension and the audi's they all suddenly acquired. They still wont admit it to this day though! fair play to them I think.

Also a few years ago I heard a story (not 100% sure if it's true or not) about a husband and wife who do the same numbers every week. The wife didnt know if it was her turn or not so bought it just in case. Turns out it was her husbands turn so he had a different ticket with the same numbers. Their numbers came up... turns out there were 3 winners... them being 2 of them... so instead of getting a half the jackpot like they would have done, they ended up with 2/3's instead! I SO hope that story is true, it's brilliant.

robby^5

My Aunt was part of that group that won €500,000 about 2 weeks ago, think they each came away with about 20 grand.

DubTony

dubtom wrote: »

It always amazes me when big lottery winners go public. I'm guessing with excitement it's hard to keep your gob shut but in this day and age there's no excuse for taking the rumoured extra 50K to get your pic in the paper, for every thieving hoar in the country to see ya. I'll certainly tell no one on Saturday when I win.

There's no extra payout for going public. I agree, you'd have to be crazy to bring that kind of attention to yourself.

gaz wac

Michellenman wrote: »

wtf is a grushy? It's GUSHY!!

Its GRUSHY

peterwhilluk

Hi Does anyone think that the Lottery could be rigged?
I mean, with it all being powered by computers.

I do a double lucky dip once a month on the saturday lotto. Now i have noticed all the time thatthe first set of numbers i get are good enough fo e.g 4, 7, 20, 27,40, 43. but the second set are always similar to this: 28, 29, 30, 33, 39, 40. The second numbers do not give me the a good chance of winning.

Anyone else noticed this?

chewed

An ex work colleague of mine had an interesting idea if he managed to win big on the lotto. He would immediately email every one of his friends and family stating that he had won and then ask them if they needed money for anything urgent in their lives (life critical operation, loan sharks, mortgage arrears, etc) they could contact him directly and put forward their case.

That way you can't say you didn't offer anything, and more than likely no one will ask you for a cent.

SV

peterwhilluk wrote: »

Hi Does anyone think that the Lottery could be rigged?
I mean, with it all being powered by computers.

I do a double lucky dip once a month on the saturday lotto. Now i have noticed all the time thatthe first set of numbers i get are good enough fo e.g 4, 7, 20, 27,40, 43. but the second set are always similar to this: 28, 29, 30, 33, 39, 40. The second numbers do not give me the a good chance of winning.

Anyone else noticed this?

The first set of numbers and the second set have the exact same odds of winning..

c0rk3r

My dad won €2k or €4k last year. He asked me collect the cheque and deposit it into his account. I cycled into town to collect it but got run over by a car in phibsborough. Only my 2nd crash in 8 years cycling. Its was only minor

chewed

c0rk3r wrote: »

My dad won €2k or €4k last year. He asked me collect the cheque and deposit it into his account. I cycled into town to collect it but got run over by a car in phibsborough. Only my 2nd crash in 8 years cycling. Its was only minor

Is your name Earl?

Sounds like the start of My Name is Earl! where he gets run over and his lotto ticket disappears in the wind!