Two huge National Lottery prizes look set to go unclaimed as the deadline for the winning ticket-holders to come forward looms.
The winners of the prizes, one for €1 million, the other for €300,000, have until 5.30 p.m. today to contact National Lottery headquarters in Dublin or forfeit their money.
The prizes are for the Lotto Jackpot and Lotto Plus from Saturday, December 21st 2002.
The €1 million-winning ticket was bought in Centra Foodmarket, Ballinteer Rd, Dublin 16. The winning Lotto numbers were: 1-7-8-11-12-19.
The Lotto Plus winner was sold by the Post Office, Main Street, Fethard, Co Tipperary. The numbers picked were: 7-25-28-29-32-41.
No-one has ever come forward after the 90-day deadline has expired, although three members of a work syndicate managed to beat the deadline by a mere 90 minutes last December to claim their pot of €1,639,685.
There have been 10 unclaimed jackpots since Lotto began in April 1988. The biggest loser in the unclaimed prize stakes was the person who failed to collect over €3 million in June 2001. The winning ticket for that draw was sold in the Acorn Newsagents, Coolock, Dublin 5.
All unclaimed prizes go into a fund from which they are given back to players in the form of promotional jackpots.