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From the days of the sweepstakes up to the EuroMillions and online tickets, the lottery has had a firm hold on Irish society. As a lucky player in Cork scooped a massive €250 million in the EuroMillions on Tuesday, we take a look back at the history of the Lotto in Ireland.
While the saying “the luck of the Irish” rings true for thousands of winners, the lottery hasn’t been all fun and games in this country. There were scandals, a gameshow, a winning accountant that forced the rules to be changed, and the hilarious movie about the Irish Lotto – Waking Ned.
In the 1930s, following the Civil War, Ireland was in a great depression, and funding was badly needed for hospitals. So the Irish Hospital Sweepstakes lottery (known as ‘the sweeps’) was established as it promised to raise much needed money for hospitals.
Despite such lotteries being illegal in most jurisdictions, tickets were taking in millions and millions of pounds. While it promised to do good, the sweeps turned into one of the country’s greatest scandals.
In 1973, it emerged that only 10 per cent of the money raised was given to hospitals, as the founders of the lottery became rich. People were fooled into thinking it was an honest operation as it was associated with the Government and gardaí were in charge of tickets.
However, it was far from that. On top of hospitals only receiving a small portion of profits, the sweeps involved worldwide ticket-smuggling, tickets sold abroad that never made it back to Ireland, and tickets that never even made it into the drum.
Over a decade after the scandal broke, The National Lottery, which we know today, began in 1987 and the first draw took place on Saturday April 16, 1988. Two years later a draw was also added on a Wednesday. When the lottery first launched, players chose six numbers from a choice of 36.
However, this didn’t last long as Dubliner, Polish-Irish accountant Stefan Klincewicz, figured out how to hack the game. For a draw in May 1992, the accountant – as part of a 28-person syndicate – bought enough tickets covering all the different combinations.
They matched the winning numbers and ended up winning £1.16 million. The National Lottery caught on to their game and changed the format to 6/39 in August 1992. It also added the bonus ball to create more prizes.
Its very first draw was broadcast on RTÉ One, and it was presented by Ronan Collins and an independent observer. But just two years later it was decided that a show with more glitz and glam was needed, so Winning Streak was born.
It first aired with Mike Murphy as the presenter, and it would go on to become one of the longest-running game shows in Europe. Marty Whelan then took over in 2009 and presented the show right up until 2020. It came off air when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and hasn’t come back since.
However, broadcaster Marty says he would love to present the show again as it brought so much joy to households across Ireland. In 2004, the EuroMillions launched in Ireland as lotto players rejoiced that even more money could be won.
A year later, Dolores McNamara became the country’s first big winner when she scooped €115.4m, and has arguably remained Ireland’s most well-known lotto winner. She was also the biggest EuroMillions winner at the time.
The mother-of-six from Limerick discovered her historic win while in her local pub, the Track Bar. After her friend checked her ticket, a barmaid said the pub erupted in cheers and the “drink started flowing and the champagne was poured”. Media attention followed her as she arrived at Lotto HQ on August 4, 2005, to collect her massive cheque.
However, the millionaire became nervous with the fanfare and released a statement through her solicitor as she wanted to “return to normality as soon as possible”. Since Dolores’ win, there have been 18 EuroMillions wins in Ireland, however, no one other than Dolores went public with their win.
One of the biggest wins was by The Naul Family Syndicate in February 2019, when they won €175.4 million. While they didn’t officially go public, one of the nine winners spoke out after the €250m win on Tuesday night. Matt Rogers, who pocketed almost €20m, gave Ireland’s newest millionaire some advice: “Don’t let it change you”.
The Lotto has had such a hold on Irish society that in 1998 a fictionalised story about a man who won it was released. Waking Ned, which starred the late David Kelly, told the story of Ned Devine- a man who had a heart attack and died after the shock of winning the big bucks.
The movie then follows the hilarious extremes the village goes to to try and claim his prize, as they decide it should be done in his honour.
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