£56m EuroMillions jackpot is UK's biggest lottery win

[dutchman]

A UK ticketholder has won Britain's biggest lottery prize, scooping a £56m jackpot in Friday's EuroMillions game, the National Lottery has said.


The winning numbers were 1, 5, 18, 38, 45, and the Lucky Star numbers were 4 and 6.

A total jackpot of £113m had been on offer but it was split, with the other winning ticket bought in Spain.

It is the fourth time in three months that a British winner has scooped more than £25m in the EuroMillions draw.

Last November, Les Scadding, 53, and wife Samantha Peachey-Scadding, 38, from Caerleon, south Wales, won £45.5m on EuroMillions.

A further £45.5m was won in the same draw by a syndicate of IT workers at Hewlett Packard in Liverpool, dubbed the "Magnificent Seven".

John Walsh, 57, James Bennett, 28, Sean Connor, 32, Alex Parry, 19, Emma Cartwright, 23, Ceri Scullion, 35, and Donna Rhodes, 39, each banked £6.5m.

Then in January, there was a another huge EuroMillions prize for the UK - this time for £26.1m.

The winners, from Dorking in Surrey, played as a family syndicate, made up of Colin Sturt, 53, his brother Gary, 51, sister Teresa, 44, and their father George, 76.

Into the Rich List

It is not yet known whether the latest winning ticket belongs to a syndicate or to an individual, who would automatically gain a place among the UK's very richest people.

Last April, the annual Sunday Times Rich List revealed that it took £55m to be ranked among the country's 1,000 most wealthy people - and that threshold was falling.

Based on figures from last year, the UK's newest lottery winner has a wealth that outranks Noel and Liam Gallagher, formerly of Oasis, as well as TV chef Gordon Ramsay.

A National Lottery spokesman said of the latest win: "This is fantastic news - we're absolutely delighted to have such a massive UK win.

"Subject to validation the prize could be paid out when the banks are open on Monday."

Across Europe, the record EuroMillions win is £113m by a single ticket-holder from Spain in May last year.

EuroMillions is played in nine countries - the UK, France, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Irish Republic, Portugal and Switzerland.

Other than EuroMillions, there are a number of other lotteries played in countries around Europe. The record for the biggest win came on the Italian SuperEnalotto, when a ticket-holder banked £128m in August.

Odd isn't it? Successive governments tell us it is 'wrong' to expect any kind of payment without doing a lot of work for it and then authorise a system by which people can become multi-millionaires overnight!

[pollyanna]

........ and it's not me - I've never bought a euromilliions ticket. I hope it goes to a syndicate - it seems an obscene amount of money to win. Maybe whoever wins will give it to Gordon to help the economy

[StevieG]

That is the worst thing they could do dear as £56 Million would have disappeared this time next week

[pollyanna]

........ more like over-night me thinks - and we wouldn't have a clue what he spent it on because we wouldn't be able to understand what he said

[pollyanna]

Ticket holder stakes claim to £56m

A lucky ticket holder has come forward to stake a claim on the UK's biggest-ever lottery prize of £56 million, Camelot said.

It is not yet known whether the winning ticket belonged to an individual or a syndicate, according to a spokesman for the National Lottery.

If the EuroMillions claim is validated, the mega prize could be paid out when the banks open on Monday.

A National Lottery spokesman said: "We are looking forward to welcoming this ticket holder to our millionaires club which is already 2,400 strong.

"EuroMillions players in the UK have contributed to the massive £24 billion raised for good causes across the last 15 years. This latest winner continues the nation's great run of luck with big EuroMillions winners."

The winning ticket shares Friday night's overall jackpot of £113 million with one other which was bought in Spain