Six Lotto jackpot winners means getting ‘just’ €588,000 each

The chances of winning the Lotto are pretty slim, we’re pretty well agreed.

So what’s the chances of no less than six people choosing the same numbers and taking the jackpot?

The Lotto jackpot on Saturday night was €3,525,865, of which there were no fewer than six winners. There are many who would advocate sharing the love around in this way in any case - the National Lottery says the winners will each receive €588,144.

The most popular number sequence played in Saturday night’s draw was, incredibly, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

No fewer than 531 Lotto players played these numbers on Saturday, and if those numbers had been drawn on Saturday evening, each Lotto jackpot winner would be getting just over €6,645.

The second most popular number sequence played for Saturday evening’s draw was 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30, and 455 Lotto players played these numbers. The jackpot prize payout per winner would have been just over €7,755 if these six numbers had come out of the drum on Saturday.

Saturday’s multiple jackpot win between six ticketholders is a record since the 45 number Lotto matrix was introduced in November 2006. The highest number of ticketholders to share a Lotto jackpot on the 45-number matrix previously was three.

On two occasions, August 30th, 2008 and April 28th, 2010, three players shared a €2 million jackpot, each taking home €666,667.

On February 22nd, 2006, when the Lotto matrix was 42 numbers, 10 ticketholders shared a jackpot of €2,473,743, each taking home €247,374.

The six jackpot winning tickets for Saturday night's Lotto draw were sold in Cork, Dublin, Limerick, Meath, Wexford and Wicklow.

One of the winners, a man from Co Meath, did not hang around and was the first of Saturday’s Lotto jackpot winners to claim his prize this morning at National Lottery offices.

The man was accompanied by his family, who described him as an “optimist” who has always believed he would win.

The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, bought his ticket in Newgate Stores, Mace, Kells Road, Navan, Co Meath on Saturday.