| The National Lottery in the UK has created | | | | sports! |
| over 800,000,000 winners (yes that's 800 | | | | |
| million) since it first started back in | | | | It may seem incredible, but some lucky |
| November 1994. Every week, an estimated | | | | winners of big money prizes on the National |
| 750,000 ticket holders win prizes in the UK | | | | Lottery never actually claim their cash! |
| lottery, yet it's always the big winner who | | | | |
| attract the most attention. | | | | Claim that UK lottery money! |
| | | | |
| UK Lottery Biggest Individual Win | | | | The UK lottery web site reveals that between |
| | | | March and July 2006, an astounding |
| The largest individual ticket win on the UK | | | | £5,313,852.50 of prize money was |
| lottery was back in June 1995, when Paul | | | | unclaimed. What's more, unless the ticket |
| Maddison and Mark Gardiner from Brighton | | | | owners get their skates on, by January 2007 |
| shared £22,590,829. The winner's right to | | | | they will have relinquished their claims, and |
| anonymity if they wish it, was instated after | | | | all that prize money they won in the UK |
| the identity of a single £17.44 million | | | | National Lottery will have passed on to the |
| winner was leaked to the press in December | | | | lottery's Good Causes. |
| 1994. The shy ticket holder, an Asian factory | | | | |
| worker from Blackburn, was easily tracked | | | | Recent National Lottery unclaimed prizes |
| down by the media. | | | | |
| | | | The unclaimed cash include two cool |
| UK National Lottery Biggest Jackpot Win | | | | £250,000 prizes, one for a EuroMillions |
| | | | draw (who said we never get anything out of |
| The largest UK National Lottery jackpot was | | | | Europe?) and one for a Thunderball draw. |
| £42,008,610, shared by three ticket | | | | Perhaps the most amazing unclaimed amounts |
| holders back in January 1996. The largest | | | | are the TWO jackpot wins of £1,666,667 for |
| European individual winner was on the Irish | | | | the same date, Saturday 29 April 2006. What |
| lottery, where a Limerick woman won | | | | tremendous event could have caused two lucky |
| £77million, whilst in Spain an entire town | | | | winners to not check their tickets, one in |
| won a life-changing US$263 on the El Gordo | | | | Warwickshire and one in Glasgow? Why, |
| lottery. | | | | footballer Wayne Rooney breaking his |
| | | | metatarsal bone just six weeks before the |
| The Biggest Lottery Win in the World | | | | opening match of the World Cup of course! |
| | | | |
| Yet all these lottery wins pale into | | | | The biggest National Lottery unclaimed prize? |
| insignificance beside the largest win of all, | | | | |
| $365 million, (£210 million) won by a | | | | Back in August 2006, the Doncaster Town Crier |
| lucky Powerball ticket holder in the US state | | | | was employed to try and jog the memory of one |
| of Nebraska. Alain Maboussou, an immigrant | | | | winner, whose enormous £9,476,995 jackpot |
| from the Republic of Congo working at a | | | | from a Wednesday draw was still languishing |
| meatpacking plant, caused a massive stir by | | | | in the uk lottery bank account a month later. |
| not claiming his money straight away. | | | | Again, the winning date is significant, as it |
| Needless to say, he quit his job after | | | | was the day that London won the right to |
| winning! | | | | stage to 2012 Olympics. Perhaps the winner |
| | | | was another forgetful sports fan! |
| The National Lottery: Unclaimed prizes and | | | | |