Million Lotto Tickets Being Sold Per Hour
13 Oct 2006
Lottery fever gripped London today as tickets hit one million an hour with £74m up for grabs in two big games this weekend.
Sales of the main Lotto draw tomorrow night are running 50% higher than usual ahead of only the second triple rollover in the game's 12-year history. The jackpot now stands at £20m.
Camelot, the company that operates the National Lottery, said sales peaked at 15,000 per minute or one million an hour. But this week's total jackpot pool has also been massively boosted by a six-week rollover in tonight's EuroMillions draw.
That top prize has swelled to £54m, its second-highest. Camelot said sales would also be up 50% this week with a peak of 350,000 an hour this evening ahead of the draw. Anyone-winning the jackpot will be propelled into the higher ranks of the super-rich in Britain. Camelot pointed out it will make the winner richer than Michael Owen (£32m) or Jamie Oliver (£25m).
A Camelot spokesman said: 'We're forecasting lottery fever. This is going to be a very lucky Friday the 13th if a UK player does scoop the £54m EuroMillions jackpot.
'If there's no UK winner on Friday at least players know this week's estimated £20 million Lotto Triple Rollover jackpot has to be won - if there is no jackpot winner the money will roll down to the next prize level.'
The last really big win on the Lotto game came in September when two players shared £15m. The biggest jackpot available in Britain was in February when the EuroMillions game rolled over 11 times with a £125m top prize.