Millionaire made in the midlands - €1 million lotto plus prize won in Ballynacargy
Shop owned by family of Willie Penrose TD sells winning ticket
The National Lottery is urging Lotto players in Westmeath to check their tickets after the Lotto Plus 1 top prize of €1 million was won on last night’s Lotto draw.
The winning ticket was sold in Ballynacargy, in Penrose’s shop on Main Street.
The store is owned by Longford Westmeath TD Willie Penrose and his wife Anne.
This is the first millionaire made since the top prize for Lotto Plus 1 doubled from €500,000 to €1 million.
The National Lottery made these enhancements to the popular Lotto Plus game to create more millionaires and more than 50% more winners.
Anne Penrose said: “I was shocked to get the call from the National Lottery this morning.
“Our store is in the middle of the town so we have a lot of regular customers and a fair bit of passing trade.
“We’ve no idea who it could be but of course it would be amazing if it was one of the locals here in Ballynacargy.
“There’s great excitement about the town this morning.”
The Penroses sold a winning EuroMillions Plus ticket worth €500,000 in February 2015.
The winning numbers for the Lotto Plus draw were 2, 6, 7, 16, 25, 27 and the bonus number was 19.
This new millionaire wasn’t the only winner from last night’s Lotto draw as another lucky player from Leitrim scooped €97,236 after matching five numbers and the bonus, falling one number shy of the Lotto jackpot.
This golden ticket was sold in McCormack’s shop in Leitrim Village.
There was no winner of the Lotto jackpot of €4,506,895 – which rolls to an estimated €5.5 million next Wednesday.
National Lottery CEO, Dermot Griffin said: “We’re delighted to have our first winner of the new Lotto Plus game.
“This was the reason we made the enhancements to the game – to see more millionaires and more winners and we saw that with last night’s draw with our €1 million winner in Westmeath and with our match five and bonus winner in Leitrim.
“I encourage all of our Westmeath and Leitrim players to check their tickets to see if they have won any of these prizes.
“If you are one of the ticket holders be sure to take care of this valuable piece of paper and sign the back of the ticket and contact the National Lottery prize claims team on 01 836 4444 and we’ll make arrangements with you to come to Dublin and collect your prize.”