Lotto bosses to appear before Oireachtas committee over six months of rolling jackpots

Representatives of both the National Lottery and the Lottery Regulator will come before the Oireachtas Finance Committee next Wednesday, December 15. File Picture: PA

National Lottery bosses are to appear before an Oireachtas Committee to answer questions on how and why the Lotto has not been won in more than six months.

Representatives of both the National Lottery and the Lottery Regulator will come before the Oireachtas Finance Committee next Wednesday, December 15.

No lotto player has taken home the Lotto Jackpot since Saturday, June 5.

The game's top prize has been capped at €19,060,800 since September 29, meaning no more money can be added to it.

If won, it would become the largest lotto win in the history of the game in Ireland by a significant margin.

Last night’s unsuccessful draw marked an unprecedented 50th consecutive game in which the jackpot went unwon.

The lotto regulator has stated that while the current prize is “experiencing a particularly long roll”, an opposite scenario, in which the jackpot is won in successive games, can also occur.

The regulator pointed the fact that the jackpot was won three Saturdays in a row from late May to early June of this year as evidence of this.

The streak of games without an overall winner has led to calls for increased scrutiny of the lotto system itself.

Member of the Oireachtas Committee and Fine Gael TD for Kildare North, Bernard Durkan said some “pertinent questions” now need to be asked to the National Lottery and the regulator.

"A lot can happen in six months,” Mr Durkan said.

"Dublin footballers' unbeaten run came to an end, a Summer heatwave came and went, Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, Omicron replaced Delta, Barbados became a Republic and Wally the Walrus visited our shores and left – without winning the lotto jackpot like the rest of us.

"I see in recent weeks the lotto has begun taking out a series of advertisements across media and social media to show how the money is spread about. They’d be better off spending this outlay examining their own systems,” he said.

Mr Durkan said plans to ask those appearing before the Committee how secure and up-to-date the technology used by the National Lottery is, and whether or not any measures to improve players' chances of winning have been examined in recent weeks.

"Hopefully the answers will be more enlightening than the unsuccessful six months of draws since June 9th with no jackpot winners," he added.