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PlayExhibit A
The EuroMillions jackpot had proved to be out of reach for nine consecutive draws ahead of last Friday’s game, and again eluded participants on the mainland of the nine participating countries as a total of 60.6 million entries were made into the draw. However, one player from Gran Canaria managed to match the full winning line to give Spain its 83rd - and biggest - jackpot winner. The ticket, worth a record-equalling €190 million, was validated at the El Mirador shopping centre in Las Palmas.
Exhibit B
Spain offers a supplementary game, El Millon, where one ticket holder a week is guaranteed to win €1 million. Everyone who plays on Tuesday or Friday is automatically entered, and in Spain last week there were a total of 15.5 million entries across the two draws. The code RRH37615 was randomly selected as Friday’s winning code, and it quickly emerged that the all-important ticket had also been bought in Las Palmas.
Exhibit C
Europe’s other big multinational lottery, Eurojackpot, did not produce a jackpot winner on Friday night despite 16.3 million players entering the draw. The biggest winner was the participant who matched five main numbers plus one Euro number to pocket €1.3 million, and they bought their ticket in the town of Telde, which lies just 16 km south of Las Palmas.
Other Lucky Places
A number of other places across Europe have come to be viewed as lucky, with the UK National Lottery announcing in 2016 that there had been more major prize winners per head in the London district of Romford than anywhere else in the country. Scunthorpe has also turned out to be a lucky location, with pub landlord Ian Brooke recently winning £1 million on the UK Millionaire Maker to follow in the footsteps of two of his regular customers, David and Kathleen Long, who had previously scooped two separate prizes of £1 million. There are also lucky shops too, with one shop in Co Meath in Ireland selling two winning tickets in a matter of months.
Defying The Odds
The population of Gran Canaria is less than a million, so the chances of it selling just one big winning ticket are incredibly slim, let alone three. However, despite some extraordinary stories of coincidence, the place where you buy a EuroMillions ticket does not make any difference to your chances of winning. The odds are the same for each and every line of numbers, so if someone on your street has won it does not alter the likelihood that you will snap up the next big jackpot.
You don’t have to go to Gran Canaria to land Friday’s top prize. You can visit any authorised retailer in one of the participating countries to buy a ticket or take part in EuroMillions wherever you are by choosing numbers online. Good luck!