The 5.30 p.m. deadline passed yesterday with nobody claiming a £500,000 Lotto jackpot won on September 5th. The money will go into a special fund which will be played for again before Christmas. The special extra draw, to be announced shortly, will be worth more than £1 million, according to a National Lottery spokeswoman.
The winning ticket was a £2 quick pick bought in Newtown Stores in Tramore, Co Waterford. It now becomes the largest unclaimed National Lottery prize. The amount of unclaimed prizes usually amounts to 1 per cent of annual sales, which would come to about £3 million this year. The spokeswoman said £1 million of this - "and possibly more because it's Christmas" - would go on a special Lotto bonus in the next couple of weeks.
The September prize happened to be a special draw involving unclaimed winnings. "It is ironical that the unclaimed money this time arose from previously unclaimed money," the spokeswoman said.