Christmas Millionaire Raffle to Return on New Year’s Eve
Last Updated: Tuesday 7th July 2020, 14:46 pm
The date for this year’s Christmas Millionaire Raffle has been announced, much to the delight of lottery lovers across the country. The draw, which is widely considered to be one of the stand out dates in the Irish Lotto calendar, will take place on Sunday 31st December as players look to end 2017 with a bang.
What is the Christmas Millionaire Raffle?
As the name suggests, the Christmas Millionaire Raffle is a raffle-style game that is staged annually. As part of the wider Millionaire Raffle, draws take place at special times throughout the year, with other popular editions sometimes being held at Easter and during the summer. Unlike other games in the Irish Lotto family, the Christmas Millionaire Raffle offers a set amount of entries, meaning that if all of the tickets are sold prior to the draw, no more will be issued. What’s more, only tickets purchased will be entered into the draw, meaning all prizes are guaranteed to be won.
How the Raffle Works
A total of 500,000 tickets, each featuring a randomly selected, pre-printed code, will be issued at a cost of €25 apiece. As the codes are set, players will not be able to select their own digits. Ticket sales will cease at 10pm on the night of the draw or once all of the entries have been sold, whichever comes first.
The draw takes place in two parts, the first of which sees 5,056 tickets drawn at random. Once the prize winning tickets have been selected, the same codes will be added into a second draw to determine the size of each prize.
What Can I Win?
The game’s top prize is €1 million, a sum that will be claimed by one player. The remaining codes are then drawn with rewards ranging from €500 to €250,000.
Here is a breakdown of the prizes on offer:
| Prize Value | Number of Winners |
|---|---|
| €1 million | 1 |
| €250,000 | 1 |
| €100,000 | 4 |
| €10,000 | 10 |
| €5,000 | 25 |
| €1,000 | 115 |
| €500 | 4,900 |
It is vital that players check their codes carefully to avoid missing out on a prize. In March 2017, a player from Cork failed to claim a top prize from the 2016 Christmas Millionaire Raffle draw after allowing their ticket to expire. Participants are reminded that they have 90 days from the date of the draw to collect any winnings.
