National Lottery: Are You One of The Unclaimed Millionaires?

Time’s Running Out to Claim!

Over the years we’ve seen some eye-watering amounts being won on the National Lottery, but, up until a few years ago, those taking part would have to clutch onto their ticket for dear life, what with not being offered the opportunity to store their ticket digitally online. The game has created multiple millionaires since going live back in 1994, and all of them managed to claim their winnings with their original ticket, but for some reason, players today are often misplacing those tickets and missing out on a life-changing sum of money!

The National Lottery’s unclaimed prize list features seven winning tickets, all of which are yet to be claimed. Each one has a deadline and unless the winner comes forward before the last date to claim, the entire fortune will go to benefit National Lottery projects across the UK. Camelot retain around 1% of revenue in profit, while around 95% of total revenue goes back to winners and society, and to date, players have helped raise more than £42billion for good causes.

By playing online, not only do you get your winnings instantly, but you will never be faced with the nightmare of losing a ticket. You even get an email to tell you how the draw went, so there’s never a chance of not knowing you’re a millionaire! Same goes for the scratch card games. Unclaimed prize details are as follows, are you one of the lucky ones?

• EuroMillions £1million - Draw date: 15^th January 2021. The winning ticket was purchased in Sefton with number MNGF22971. Last date to claim is 14^th
• EuroMillions £1million - Draw date: 29^th January 2021. The winning ticket was purchased in the London Borough of Lewisham with number VSHS38986. Last date to claim is 28^th
• EuroMillions £1million - Draw date: 12^th March 2021. The winning ticket was purchased in Cheshire East with number JZLP20395. Last date to claim is 8^th
• EuroMillions £141,345.80 - Draw date: 26^th March 2021. The winning ticket was purchased in West Dorset with numbers 10, 12, 37, 49, 50 and lucky stars 3, 8. Last date to claim is 22^nd
• EuroMillions £103,945.80 - Draw date: 16^th April 2021. The winning ticket was purchased in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley with numbers 6, 11, 29, 40, 48 with lucky stars 5 and 9. Last date to claim is 13^th
• EuroMillions £1million - Draw date: 27^th April 2021. The winning ticket was purchased in the Borough of Welwyn Hatfield with number XZZF28583. Last date to claim is 24^th
• EuroMillions £1million - Draw date: 30^th April 2021. The winning ticket was purchased in the London Boroughs of Harrow and Brent. Draw details on website. Last date to claim is 27^th

The Top 10 Biggest National Lottery Winners

Ever wondered who has won it big playing the lottery in the UK? Well wonder no more as we have the top 10 biggest UK winners and how they did it.

#10: £25.5million for Not Winning! How does that work? On Wednesday May 24^th, 2017, the National Lottery jackpot was guaranteed to drop, but there were no winning ticket holders matching all six numbers and the bonus ball. Due to the guarantee of it being won, the wager-free cash sum passed to the next tier where two lucky anonymous winners scooped £12.7m each for matching just 5 numbers and the bonus ball!

#9: £26.1m Must be Won! Wednesday 19^th October 2016, the must be won, and in the result of nobody matching all six main balls drawn, the jackpot would go to the next tier. Only there was no risk of that as one lucky winner matched all numbers to take home the life-changing sum.

#8: £26.4m Make for a Great NYE Celebration! Saturday 31^st December 2016, a run of rollovers came to a head for one lucky anonymous winner who also made history for picking up one of the largest ever recorded prizes for not matching all six numbers! Just five numbers and the bonus ball kick-started the winner’s new year celebrations!

#7: £26.4m for Three! Lottery rollovers can only go so far and even back in 2018, if there were no winners of the main prize, those matching five and the bonus ball would share the jackpot. And, because of this rule, on Wednesday 3^rd October 2018, three lucky ticket holders each became £8.8m richer.

#6: £30.5m for Nine! Wednesday 12^th January 2000, a total of nine lucky winners shared that £30.5m prize pool and no, they were not known to each other nor were they part of a syndicate. One of the winners was a banker who only realise he’d won by checking Teletext and he instantly bought his dream home with a swimming pool.

#5: £32.5m Fishy Treat! On Saturday 13^th February 2016, Gerry Cannings from Slough, was out buying fish and chips when he saw a poster advertising the Lotto. He decided to buy 5 lucky dips for the next draw where he and his wife Lisa scooped £32.5m! They decided to wait a week before going public and at the time, Lisa said: “It did mean that Gerry had to carry round the winning ticket in his wallet all week. It was quite nerve-wracking.” I can imagine!

#4: £35.1m Biggest One Yet! Wednesday 6^th April 2016, an anonymous ticket holder scooped the entire jackpot and, in the process, became a record-holder for the largest Lotto win on a single ticket! Talk about a bonus!

#3: £40.2m Rollover Delight! Saturday 27^th January 1996, just three weeks after £42m in rollovers was given away, a jackpot of £40.2m was up for grabs. Four lucky ticket holders walked away with more than £10m each after matching all six numbers drawn. One couple splashed out on a ticket to NYC via Concorde, the other, who is the niece of the Coronation Street actor Kevin LeVell (Kevin Webster), only found out he had won in the pub!

#2: £42m And Gaining Pace! Rollovers in 1996 were relatively unheard of and when they began to kick in, ticket sales soared. On Saturday 6^th January 1996, rollovers kicked in and three lucky ticket holders walked away with £14m each.

#1: £66m and Fifteen Times a Rollover! Back before there was a cap on how much could be won or how many times a jackpot could rollover, the jackpot had rolled over a massive 15 times before it was won. There were two lucky winners, David and Carol Martin who scooped £33m but the remaining £33m went unclaimed. A huge media surge followed in search of the winner, with many approaching the news to claim they had won when they hadn’t. The mystery was solved in the end when the lucky anonymous winner came forward for their life-changing prize.