The ticket was bought in a store that had not sold a winner in 28 years.
In case you missed it, last week’s winning Lotto ticket was sold in a Donegal store that officially ended its 28-year high-win “famine” after it sold a Match 5+ Bonus ticket worth €284,964.
The winner of the Saturday night (21 April) draw however, did not step forward immediately. So while the staff of Kernan’s Eurospar in Newtowncunningham, Co Donegal popped the champagne bottles, the mystery remained at large.
Now, the winner has come forward only to reveal that they had been using the same five numbers every week for the last 30 years.
The Newtowncunningham local came out to say: “I was watching the draw live on Saturday and I almost fell off the chair as I saw my numbers being called out one after another.
“I have been playing the same numbers for 30 years so maybe I was due a big win.
“The money will be evenly shared among the family but not before we indulge in some celebrations this weekend.”
Talk about the forces of the universe coming together in one of the most unlikely ways.
The Eurospar, which sold the winner their ticket, is situated 18km outside Derry City. They had previously sold two Lotto jackpot winning tickets within the space of three weeks of each other back in 1990.
Speaking about the return of their “lotto luck”, following the initial announcement, store owner, Anthony Kernan expressed his joy, saying: “We’re a very lucky Lotto shop but we’ve had a wee bit of a wait since our last big jackpot wins in 1990.
“We were the very first shop to sell a winning Lotto jackpot ticket for a Wednesday night draw when one of our customers won the £367,000 prize in May 1990. Incredibly, we had another winning Lotto jackpot ticket just three weeks later when we sold a ticket worth £141,000.
“Good things certainly come to those who wait so we are absolutely thrilled that somebody in the locality has picked up such a large Lotto prize.”
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