'You’re changing someone’s life': Store owner hopes €11.2m lotto winner is local
We hope it's a local - say the owners of the lucky service station in County Wicklow where Ireland’s largest winning Lotto ticket in two years was sold.
The jackpot ticket, worth over €11.2 million, was bought on Wednesday just before the draw at the Texaco-Spar on Monastery Road in Enniskerry.
The winning Quickpick ticket numbers were 10, 13, 23, 24, 25 and 44. The bonus number was 12. A second player won €134,000, also in the main draw, with the National Lottery app failing in the draw’s aftermath as people feverishly checked to see if they had been the lucky ones.
However, the identity of the winner has yet to be revealed, with the National Lottery stating they have yet to come forward.
It is 'twice as nice' for store owner Ken O’Connor - one of his other Spar stores in Rathfarnham, Co Dublin, previously sold a second jackpot ticket, worth €5.7 million on that occasion, less than 12 months ago.
“It’s been a busy day, we’ve been on this since 9.30 this morning,” said Mr O’Connor, adding that the situation gives a “great buzz” for all involved. “Obviously we had the Rathfarnham ticket, but this one pips it now.”
“Well you’re changing someone’s life,” he said, when asked why selling a winning ticket is so special.
“There’s great excitement, the Lotto make a big fuss of you when it happens, there’ll be a big crowd with balloons everywhere, and radio and TV, and it gives the whole staff a big lift,” he said.
As to the identity of the winner, Mr O’Connor said he is “hopeful” it will be one of their local regulars: “We’ve had pretty much the same staff in place since 2014 when we set up, and they know all the customers. 90% of our trade is local business, so you have to think it could be a local, and wouldn’t you be delighted for them?”
“With a bit of luck we’ll pick up who it is on the grapevine,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mr O’Connor is hopeful his store in Foxrock, south Dublin, can keep up his business’ winning ways.
“We’ve had a few second places, but the Foxrock station is the only one to have no winner, so we’ll have to keep our fingers crossed on that one,” he said.
The massive win is the 25th winning ticket to be sold worth more than €10 million in the Lottery’s history, and the 14th largest haul overall.
The highest Lotto Jackpot in the 31-year history of the Lottery meanwhile was €18.9m in Co Carlow, in June 2008.
This week’s win was the first Lotto jackpot collected across the country since June 8th, when a Co Galway man woke up €4.1 million richer.
