Counting down the days until payday? Fear not – you might be a EuroMillions winner, and not even know it!
Ever wondered what it would be like to win the lottery? What would you do? Buy a car? Build a mansion? Move to space to escape the realities of the world’s political turmoil and climate emergency?
The fact of the matter is, you could already be a winner. The National Lottery actually provide a table showing the ‘big prizes’ that haven’t been claimed – and out of 16 unclaimed prizes, a whopping SIX were bought in London boroughs. SIX OF US.
Awkwardly, all six are winners of the EuroMillions ‘Millionaire Maker’ – an additional code that appears at the bottom of each EuroMillions lottery ticket. One random code from each draw wins a cool million quid, but in the words of our Commercial Editor Georgie Darling, “I had no idea this was a thing.” It seems like a lot of Londoners are checking their main numbers, coming up empty, and then chucking it away. An expensive mistake!
(On special occasions, even more codes are chosen to win, such as in the July 19 draw, when twenty millionaires were theoretically created: but four of those (including two Londoners!) have still failed to claim their prize.)
Lottery winners have just 180 days to claim their winnings – and the first ticket expires on September 29, a mere twelve days from now! So get checking those old tickets – here are the details.
London’s six unclaimed £1m EuroMillions lottery tickets
Won on April 2nd • London Borough Of Brent
Deadline to claim: September 29
Won on May 17 • London Borough Of Sutton
Deadline to claim: November 13
Won on June 14 • London Borough of Bexley
Deadline to claim: December 11
Won on July 19 • London Borough of Harrow
Deadline to claim: January 15, 2020
Won on July 19 • London Borough of Southwark
Deadline to claim: January 15, 2020
Won on August 23 • London Borough of Lambeth
Deadline to claim: February 19, 2020
So if you have bought a EuroMillions ticket in Brent, Bexley, Harrow, Lambeth, Sutton or Southwark, then you could have a seven-digit sum waiting to be transferred into your bank account. According to the last census, 8.136 million live in London. So, according to our amazing maths skills, you have a whopping 1 in 1,356,000 chance of being one of these people. Not bad!
The good news is, even if these dizzying prizes don’t get claimed, the money will go to a range of National Lottery Good Causes.