By Alex Doyle
Shops across Co Wicklow are reporting high sales and queues ahead of tonight’s ‘must-win’ Lotto draw.
The National Lottery confirmed it had been granted regulatory approval to hold the draw as the jackpot has not been won since June last year.
As Ireland will have a new millionaire by this evening, workers in stores throughout the county have been rushed off their feet.
“Sales have been mad, I’d say nearly every customer we’ve had in has bought a ticket,” said a sales assistant from SuperValu in Wicklow town.
“When they [customers] heard it will be won tonight they’re saying ‘oh I’ll just get another ticket’. It’s been a crazy day.”
It’s also busy in Dunnes Stores in Arklow as customers are reportedly buying more lines than usual.
“Jesus, we’ve been really flat out all day. It’s really, really busy,” said a worker to Wicklow News when contacted. “It hasn’t stopped all day there’s been queues in the store. Sales are definitely up.”
Elsewhere in the Garden County, a local service station in Rathnew said typical Saturday sales for the National Lottery have tripled as locals purchase their tickets.
“Ticket sales yesterday and today so far have been very, very high,” said an employee of Maxol.
If the ‘will be won’ Lotto jackpot is not won outright, the full value of the jackpot prize will flow down to the winner(s) of the next winning prize tier.
Explaining the process, the National Lottery said: “For example, if there are no players who match 6 numbers in the draw but there are winners at the Match 5+Bonus prize tier, they will win the €19.06 million jackpot as well as the additional funds that would usually go to the jackpot.”
Tickets can be purchased up until 7:45pm this evening, with the draw taking place live on RTÉ One at 8pm. Results will also be available online.
Tonight’s winning numbers
The winning Lotto numbers are 16, 9, 40, 30, 2, 37 and bonus 23.
The winning Lotto Plus 1 numbers are 41, 5, 16, 9, 33, 27 and bonus 12.
The winning Lotto Plus 2 numbers are 44, 23, 19, 11, 26, 6 and bonus 16.
The winning Raffle Prize number is 9398.
