ONE PERSON - or a syndicate - woke up €14.54 million richer this morning, after there was just one winning ticket in last night's big Lotto draw. It was purchased in the east of the country.
Newsagents across the State shared their own Lotto jackpot yesterday in the build-up to the draw.
More than 2,000 premises are licensed Lotto agents and it was estimated that an average of 150,000 tickets an hour were bought from 4.30-7.45pm yesterday - generating up to €600,000 in sales during the busiest hour.
A the National Lottery spokeswoman said that from last Saturday to last night's rollover draw between €6 million and €8 million euro worth of tickets changed hands.
Many newsagents reported a bumper trade yesterday, but some said they did not experience a huge rush compared to a normal Saturday night, with staff at one premises in Galway suspecting the weather may have prevented a bigger turnout.
While Orla Sherwin, manager of Barrett's Newsagents in Raheny Shopping Centre, Dublin said some of her customers believed the jackpot would not be won last night and instead put their faith in a bank holiday roll-over instead. However, Ms Sherwin said the shop was "out the door" with Lotto hopefuls and there had been queues all day at the machine.
Thomas Moran, a sales assistant at Newstand, Middle Street, Galway said Lotto transactions were not as voluminous as he had expected yesterday and said "unlucky" bad weather may have put a dampener on things.
"I bought a €4 Quickpick ticket myself, but I am not too confident of my chances," said Mr Moran.
Philip O'Keeffe, manager at Spar, Glasnevin Avenue in Dublin, described the Lotto foot-fall into his shop as "crazy" as the countdown for the draw got closer.
"We had over double the number of customers in and there was a rush from 4.30pm."
Mary Lowry of Newsfayre in Nenagh said a "massive" number of wannabe millionaires were buying tickets at the store and said business "was crazy".
The winning numbers for the main Lotto draw were: 24, 27, 28, 33, 35, 36 and thee bonus number was 15.