185 million reasons to cross your fingers

A RECORD €185 million is up for grabs tonight and people across the country are rushing out to buy lottery tickets in a hope of hitting the EuroMillions jackpot.

The prize money would create the biggest winner in Europe if a single ticketholder scooped the lot. That holder of the life-changing ticket would end up with a fortune worth more than veteran stars such as Rod Stewart, Chris Martin, Gwyneth Paltrow or Tom Jones.

If a person in Ireland matches the elusive five numbers plus two Lucky Stars, they will jump to 52nd place on Ireland’s Rich List ahead of famous singer Van Morrison and owner of Barry’s Tea Tony Barry.

The jumbo-sized jackpot is the result of no winners of Tuesday night’s draw where €176m was on offer. The jackpot has been rolled over 12 times since May 24 when no one produced the winning ticket.

Tonight, if the drawn numbers do not match any tickets, the €185m will be capped and “frozen” and the surplus from sales will be split between players who matched the five main numbers and one Lucky Star. This is likely to generate over 10 winners of over €1m in tonight’s draw.

An Irish winner of the massive windfall of €185m could snap up all seats in Croke Park for Sunday’s Leinster Football Final clash between Wexford and Dublin. And if music’s more their thing, they could afford all the tickets for the Oxegen festival this weekend.

Ireland’s largest lottery winner was Limerick mother-of-six Dolores McNamara who won €115m in July 2005.

The odds of winning tonight’s jackpot by matching seven numbers are 76 million to one.

Picture: Justin Mac Innes