£100m lottery jackpot up for grabs - News in brief - Evening Standard
       

£100m lottery jackpot up for grabs

A £100 million EuroMillions jackpot will be the world's biggest lottery pay-out if it is won by a single player, Lottery organisers said.

Larger prizes have been won in the US but the actual payouts were lower either due to tax or because winners opted for smaller one-off lump sums.

The special EuroMillions prize has to be won on Friday night.

If no player matches all the winning numbers, the estimated £100 million top prize will be distributed among winners in the next prize level.

A single winner would become the UK's biggest lottery winner, eclipsing Glasgow postal administrator Angela Kelly who scooped £35.4 million on the EuroMillions jackpot in August last year.

They would also take the European lottery crown from Dolores McNamara from Ireland who won £77 million in July 2005.

EuroMillions is played in the UK and eight other countries: France, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Switzerland.

A National Lottery spokesman said: "The National Lottery has created over 2,100 millionaires to date, but if there is a single UK winner of the jackpot we could be signing our biggest cheque ever, as well as creating lottery history around the world."

A £95 million EuroMillions jackpot in February led to a surge in sales 500% higher than a normal week, the spokesman said.

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