"This will be a huge help in getting a mortgage"- Offaly man planning smart spending with €50k scratchcard win

An Offaly punter landed a massive €50,000 from a scratchcard this week, and he plans on putting some of the winnings towards securing a mortgage for himself.

The lucky man bought the ticket in a Spar shop in Tullamore on the day that the Pope visited Ireland, and he said that it finally gives him a chance to buy his own home after several years of renting.

“This is a fantastic win I am absolutely delighted” he said. “I won’t go wild I will get the train back home and it will be life as normal. But this will be a huge help in getting a mortgage for my first home I am thrilled.”

Meanwhile, a group of eight lucky work colleagues from South Dublin are celebrating today after they collected a cool a €500,000 from the National Lottery after they became Ireland’s 21st winners of the EuroMillions Plus top prize in 2018.

The work mates told how they had an agonising wait to double check their winning ticket which had been locked in their office over the weekend.

The syndicate, who wish to keep their win private, took home a prize of €62,500 each and plans have already been made for holidays, cars and loan repayments.

The winning quick pick ticket was sold at the Mace convenience store in Walkinstown last Friday. This is the first large prize that the syndicate have won together since they started playing over ten years ago.

The syndicate leader was flanked in the National Lottery winners’ room by the rest of his lucky colleagues who were making sure that he returned to work after collecting their cheque for €500,000! One of the lucky workers said, “We’ll definitely have to keep an eye on him until we get our winnings, we don’t want him emigrating abroad with our €500,000,” they joked. “There has been such a great vibe in work since the weekend. We’ve all been on cloud nine discussing how we’re now going to be able to afford lovely holidays and cars. The only thing we’ll have to worry about now is getting the time off work!” they added.

Word of Friday’s EuroMillions Plus win in Walkinstown reached the group early on Saturday morning but they had an agonising wait to check their numbers as their ticket had been locked in the office:

“There was a flurry of messages between us all on Saturday morning when news of the winning store was announced. We knew there was a small chance that we had the winning ticket but the ticket was left in a drawer in the office so we had a very anxious wait until somebody made their way in and actually checked the ticket. Thank god it turned out to be the winner because I think we worked ourselves up so much that we probably just assumed that it was us,” added one of the lucky winners.