How Much Has Been Won In EuroMillions Ireland Only Raffles?
The EuroMillions Ireland Only Raffle has now been running for over three years so we’ve taken a look at how much prize money has been given out in that time, in anticipation of some very special draws in December.
Guaranteed €50,000 Prize Fund In Every Draw
Firstly, If you’re unfamiliar with the way the Ireland Only Raffle works, it is as follows: you receive a unique nine-character code for every line of EuroMillions numbers you play. All of the codes that have been issued for a particular draw are entered into the Ireland Only Raffle and on the night of each EuroMillions draw ten codes are selected as the winners. Each player that has one of the matching codes on their ticket wins €5,000.
As the name of the game suggests, it is exclusive to EuroMillions players in Ireland, so there is a €50,000 prize fund that is guaranteed to go to Irish players in every EuroMillions draw.
To date there have been 331 Ireland Only Raffle draws, in which more than €26.5 million in prize money has been given away. The vast majority of those draws have been the standard twice-weekly raffles in which a €50,000 prize fund is split between ten winning ticket holders.
Some draws, however, have offered more. Since February 2017, the Irish National Lottery has regularly held special raffles in which a prize fund of over €1 million is given away. These special raffles are always announced in advance and often mark special occasions, such as Christmas.
There have been 10 of these special raffles in the last three years. The million-euro prize is usually given away to one winner, although there was one exception. On Friday 26th October 2018 the extra €1 million was split between ten winners, with each one receiving €100,000 on top of the usual €5,000 raffle prize.
The most recent of these million-euro raffles took place on 5th July 2019. That looks set to change, though, as the Irish Lottery has some more special draws in store.
Two €1 Million Raffles to Take Place In the Same Week
The Ireland Only Raffles scheduled to take place on 3rd and 6th December will both give away €1 million, in addition to the usual ten prizes of €5,000. That means if you buy an entry to the EuroMillions draws on those dates you will be playing for an extra €2 million.
The winners of the ten €5,000 prizes will be drawn first and then those ten winning codes will be placed into a further raffle, where one of them will be drawn as the million-euro winner. Whichever ticket holder has that matching code will win a total of €1,005,000.
All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is get your EuroMillions entry before sales close on the night of each draw. If you do play, make sure to check the raffle codes on your ticket, as well as your EuroMillions numbers
29th November 2019
