Lotto prize biggest so far this year

Lottery chiefs are expecting to sell up to 1,800 tickets a minute in the run-up to this weekend’s €14m jackpot draw – the fifth largest on record.

The prize fund has rolled over since St Patrick’s weekend making it the biggest total so far this year.

Paula McEvoy, National Lottery spokeswoman, said during the peak hours before Saturday’s draw, shops will be selling hundreds of tickets every minute.

“It’s the highest jackpot this year and has been rolling over for weeks so it’s a bumper draw and will definitely go down as the fifth largest in the history of the game,” she said.

The lottery’s 3,400 outlets around the country are expecting to take in at least €500,000 an hour during peak play time between 4.30pm and 7.45pm.

“We’d expect to sell in excess of 1,800 tickets a minute,” the spokeswoman said.

Ms McEvoy said 60% of people who play the lottery will buy their tickets tomorrow afternoon and evening and she urged people to play early.

The last time the Lotto jackpot hit such heights was June 18 last year when it passed €13.6m. That prize was not won for another 10 days until a 16-person syndicate of construction workers at the Dan Morrissey group in Carlow scooped €18m.