Ireland Only Raffle Prize Remains Unclaimed
Last Updated: Tuesday 7th July 2020, 17:19 pm
A special Ireland Only Raffle draw was held on Tuesday 5th of July, offering an additional prize of €1 million. The prize remains unclaimed nearly a week after the winning code was drawn, after the winning ticket was announced to have been purchased in Co. Laois.
The winning €1 million Ireland Only Raffle code was IGMS26203, and was bought from Bracken’s Gala shop on Stradbally Road in Portlaoise. Shop owner Maeve Bracken celebrated selling the winning ticket with her staff on Monday, though had no idea who the lucky winner might be. “We are hoping it is someone local but we have heard nothing yet[.] It could be someone passing through, [though] we get a lot of people from Beladd, and staff from the hospital.”
The Ireland Only Raffle is a supplementary EuroMillions game, played alongside the main draw and offering ten players the chance to win a fixed €5,000 prize. From time to time, special Ireland Only Raffle draws are held, with an additional €1 million prize available to one of the ten raffle code winners. The 5th July EuroMillions draw was announced to be one such draw in June.
No one won the €75 million EuroMillions jackpot, though over 60,000 Irish players won a prize in the draw. There were ten €5,000 raffle prizes as well as the €1 million special draw prize on offer. The numbers for the 5th July draw were 2, 9, 20, 34 and 42, with Lucky Stars 6 and 9.
The last €1 million Ireland Only Raffle prize was offered on 3rd August 2018, with the winner purchasing their ticket from University Hospital in Co. Waterford. However, on the 26th October 2018, €1 million was used to boost the existing raffle prizes - giving ten winners an inflated €105,000 prize.
Change in EuroMillions Fortune for County
The seven-figure Ireland Only Raffle win is a breath of fresh air for Laois’ EuroMillions players, as the county was recently revealed to be the unluckiest in Ireland for EuroMillions jackpot wins. The county has the lowest number of jackpot wins per head of population, with one jackpot winner for every 16,939 people. Co. Louth topped the list, with one in every 5,155 people winning a top prize there.
Unclaimed prizes are returned to the Irish National Lottery for promotional use 90 days from the date they were won. The €1 million raffle prize winner has until the 3rd October to collect their winnings from the Irish National Lottery headquarters in Dublin.
