National Lottery: Record jackpot for tonight’s draw

The owner of the €100,000 winning ticket sold in Cavan as part of the annual Christmas Millionaire Raffle has collected his winnings, the National Lottery has confirmed.

However if no-one wins the jackpot this week, Camelot will enact new regulations which stipulate that it must be shared out.

A spokesman said: “The National Lottery is all about millionaire making and Wednesday’s jackpot has the potential to make one of the biggest in our history”.

The previous highest jackpot stood at £42 million and was shared by three winners in 1996.

The record jackpot – which Camelot has promised will be won or shared out on Saturday – is seeing a surge in ticket sales.

Since 10 extra balls were introduced to the game in October, the chances of winning have gone from 1-in-14 million to 1-in-45 million.

Lotto players in Coventry and Warwickshire can look forward to a record jackpot tonight.

The biggest UK Lotto win was in 1995 when colleagues Mark Gardiner and Paul Maddison shared £22.5m, though Mr Gardiner later revealed the money did not bring him happiness.

Camelot said this would make it “some of the best odds players have ever had to win a multi-million pound life-changing jackpot”.

According to The Sunday Times Rich List 2015, if a player won Wednesday’s entire jackpot their wealth would be on a par with Adele, worth an estimated £50 million, while they would be wealthier than sports stars Andy Murray and Rory McIlroy, believed to be worth £48 million and £38 million respectively.

Under the new lottery rules this means that Saturday’s lottery could see the odds of winning significantly slashed.