MILLIONAIRE MILESTONE: Celebrating the fact that The National Lottery has now officially created more than 100 millionaires in Northern Ireland are Derry~Londonderry millionaire Anne Canavan, who won £1M on EuroMillions two years ago this month, with butler Paul Pritchard and Jeremy Kevan, concierge at the 5-star Culloden Hotel where many lottery winners have been unveiled.
THE National Lottery today revealed that the North of Ireland has now officially passed the magical 100 millionaire milestone.
And helping the National Lottery celebrate this milestone is Derry’s Ann Canavan who won £1 million pounds on the EuroMillions two years ago this month.
A staggering 103 millionaires have now been created in the North of Ireland since the very first draw on Saturday November 19, 1994 – the most recent public winners being charity workers Colin and Eithne Bell from Newry who scooped a huge £1m on the EuroMillions Millionaire Maker in June.
In fact, lottery mathematicians have revealed that more than 40 per cent of the North of Ireland’s growing number of lottery millionaires have hit the jackpot in the last five years – a sure sign that we’re in the midst of a lucky streak!
Amazingly, there have been 43 millionaires created in the North of Ireland during this time, which equates to a new NI millionaire every six weeks on average.
The statistics, which include winners who have gone public and those who remain anonymous, show that since The National Lottery began in 1994 there has been an average of 4.5 millionaires per year here.
When we narrow this down to the last five years, however, that figure rises to 8.6 per year.
Andy Carter, Senior Winners’ Advisor for The National Lottery, and the man who pays out the big winners, said: “We are delighted to reveal that we have now created more than 100 millionaires in Northern Ireland, which is a huge milestone for the region and surely cause for great celebration.
“There’s definitely something in the Northern Ireland water in recent years which is making it one of the luckiest postcode areas in the UK,” he added.
It’s not just millionaires who had their lives changed by playing The National Lottery, with over 700 big winners from the North of Ireland bagging prizes of £50,000 or more since the first draw took place.
Looking at the past five years, a prize of MORE THAN £50,000 HAS BEEN WON IN THE NORTH OF IRELAND EVERY 12.76 DAYS, with a total of 143 big winners during this time.
This means that, since The National Lottery began, one person in every 2,066 people here has won a life-changing amount of money.
It isn’t just winners whose lives have been changed by The National Lottery over the years, with more than £30 million for National Lottery-funded projects generated every week.
In the North of Ireland alone there has been more than £1 BILLION distributed since 1994 with well over 20,000 individual National Lottery grants awarded to individuals, organisations and projects across the arts, sports, heritage, health, education, environment, charity and voluntary sectors.
For more information on National Lottery funding please visit www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk.
