Irish Lotto's capped €19.06m jackpot is won in Castlebar after seven months

Nobody won the Irish Lotto jackpot after 5 June 2021, when it paid out €2.475 million. The prize kept rolling until it reached its €19.06 million cap on 2 October 2021. From then on, money that would have gone into the jackpot was passed down to the next prize tier with a winner.

The long wait led to calls from politicians for an investigation. A 'Will be Won' rule was brought in for the draw on Saturday 15 January 2022. If no ticket matched all six numbers, the jackpot would go to the next tier down.

The rule was not needed. A single Quick Pick ticket matched 2, 9, 16, 30, 37 and 40 to win €19,060,800, the biggest jackpot the game had ever paid. It was sold at Laura's XL on Hopkins Road in Castlebar, and the winner contacted the National Lottery within a few days to claim.

The 149 tickets that matched five numbers and the bonus shared almost €5.5 million, at €36,687 each. The National Lottery later changed the rules so the jackpot can stay at its cap for no more than five draws.

Sources

• The Irish Post (irishpost.com)
• The Anglo-Celt (anglocelt.ie)
• Connaught Telegraph (con-telegraph.ie)
• BreakingNews.ie (breakingnews.ie)