The Irish winner of Friday night's shared €132 million EuroMillions jackpot will have to wait till the end of the week before the money is pooled from around Europe and arrives in Ireland.
The Irish jackpot winner, who has contacted the National Lottery, will receive €66.19 million. The second winning ticket was sold in France.
National Lottery chief executive Dermot Griffin said the winner would be given some “time and space” before coming into the head office to claim the prize in person.
Speaking to RTÉ Morning Ireland he said the office would not identify where in Ireland the winning ticket was sold.
“We were able to talk to them and take them through some of the advice we give to winners, particularly for this amount of money,” said Mr Griffin after his office received a call from the winner.
“What we do on a big win like this is we give them a little bit of time and space, certainly people might want to contact other family friends, relations or even advice from solicitors or accountants. We wouldn’t identify a particular area on a win of this magnitude.”
He said it was not yet clear whether the prize had been won by one person or by a syndicate.
“We spoke to one person on the phone but then again they can represent a syndicate or they represent the family syndicate or they could be on their own. We just don’t know at this stage,” he said.
The National Lottery advised the winner to sign his or her name on the back of the ticket and keep it safe.
“When you become a multi-millionaire in the space of one night it takes a bit of getting used to, but we’re there to help them and no doubt we’ll be in contact with them certainly over the next few days. We’ll give them a little bit of time and advice and they can make their arrangements to come in and pick up the big cheque.”
The claimant must attend National Lottery headquarters in person within 90 days of the date of the draw to officially claim the prize.
“There’s plenty of time to decide when it suits them to come in and collect the money,” said Mr Griffin. “. . . you have to remember this is a game played in nine other countries and the jackpots are pooled, so there’s a process around collecting that money.
“It would certainly be the end of this week before the money arrives in Ireland for us to be able to pay it out to the winners.”
EuroMillions is played in nine countries – Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.
Mr Griffin says the winner will be given a booklet and shown a video when they arrive to pick up their prize money.
He said the video gives winners advice about tax and some advice in terms of getting good professional assistance.
At least 91,000 people won prizes in last Friday’s €132 million EuroMillions, he added.
Meanwhile, the National Lottery is calling for the Dublin winner of €1,000,000 to come forward and collect their prize. The winning ticket was sold at the Bus Stop Kiosk in Rathfarnham, Dublin 14 on November 9th, 2015.
In September 2014, a jackpot worth €86.7 million was won by a syndicate in Dublin. In July 2013, one Irish winner won a jackpot of almost €94 million but chose to remain anonymous.
Dolores McNamara holds the record for the largest ever win. The Co Limerick woman scooped more than €115 million in 2005.
