Shops expecting last-minute Euromillions rush
Shops are bracing themselves for a last-minute rush on EuroMillions ticket sales, ahead of today’s massive £88m jackpot draw.
The mega-prize must be won tonight, and if there is no top winner the cash will be rolled down.
The £88m cash correlates with there being 88 days left until Christmas.
If one ticket-holder banks the jackpot, he or she will become the winner of Europe’s biggest ever lottery payout, Camelot said.
They will have the spending power to fund £1m shopping sprees every day until Christmas Day.
Camelot estimates that more than a million tickets an hour will be snapped up tonight as lottery fever reaches its climax.
A spokeswoman said: “In the last two months UK players have scored massively on EuroMillions with individual wins of £35.4m and £26.5m - representing the two biggest ever single lottery wins in the UK.
“We’re keeping our fingers crossed that it will be another lucky night for UK players and expect lots of people will be rushing out to get their tickets before the rugby with sales in the last few hours being well over a million tickets an hour.”
According to Coutts & Co, an £88m EuroMillions jackpot winner would earn approximately £15,370 per day in interest alone.
The most frequently drawn EuroMillions ball is 50, having been drawn 29 times since launch, and the least frequently drawn is 46 – only seven times.
EuroMillions made European lottery history in February 2006 when the jackpot reached a record-breaking £125m.
The prize was shared between three ticket-holders across Europe.
The biggest EuroMillions publicity winner to date is Angela Kelly from Scotland who won a £35.4m jackpot in August.
Winning £88m would catapult the recipient ahead of the likes of Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins and George Michael on the Sunday Times Rich List.
The odds of banking the jackpot are just over 76m to one.
But the odds of matching five main numbers and one Lucky Star number – the next prize level down – are under 5.5m to one.
EuroMillions costs £1.50 to play and sales of tickets end at 7.30pm.
The draw is shown every Friday on UKTV Gold during the panel game, EuroMillions: Boom Bang A Bang, which starts at 10.20pm
