THE biggest ever Lotto jackpot of £4.74 million was won last night by a ticket bought in Dublin earlier in the afternoon. The ticket was not a "quick pick" but a regular £4 ticket. By last night, 1.75 million adults had bought tickets with the dream of becoming multi-millionaires even though the odds were 5.25 million to one against.
The excitement had been building since Saturday when the jackpot of £3.58 million was not won. Yesterday, the rush to buy tickets began in earnest by early afternoon and some shops took on extra assistants to cope.
By this time, there was little doubt that the previous record of £4.43 million in May 1995 would easily be topped. In the event, it beat that figure by more than £314,000.
At 3 p.m. the jackpot was already at £4.32 million, indicating that many players had heeded the National Lottery's advice and played early.
The jackpot record was broken at 4.37 p.m. and climbed during the peak period of play as people leaving work bought tickets.
At one point, near 7 p.m., 8,000 play slips a minute were being processed.
The National Lottery has recently installed new machines in its outlets which, in view of the thousands buying tickets yesterday, made it quicker to process the slips.
Mr Ray Bates of the National Lottery said last night that with such a big game, there were usually many people who were playing for the first time.
The regular players would buy their usual amount and then add a few more lines. The new players would buy £1 or £2 worth. As a result, the average being spent on one ticket was actually lower than usual.
Most important, Mr Bates said, a total of £1.3 million would be raised for beneficial projects. The total jackpot figure last night was £4,744,563.
The winning numbers were 10, 13, 18, 24, 35 and 39. The bonus number was 21.
Sixteen Match Five plus bonus ticket holders get £5,000 each; 478 Match Five winners get £437, 17,529 Match Four winners win £23. Finally, 21,580 Match Three plus bonus winners get £10 each.