People who found their attempts to purchase tickets for last night's €11.4 million Lotto draw thwarted by long queues can breathe a sigh of relief as there was no winner of the jackpot.
Saturday's jackpot is expected to be in excess of €13 million, following 11 successive draws without a winner.
Most lottery tickets are purchased in the two hours before the draw and the National Lottery advised people to "play early" to avoid the possibility of missing out on the draw.
However, not everyone heeded their advice and ticket agents reported that a number of late hopefuls had to be turned away from their shops.
Joe Tierney, a Lotto agent from Navan, Co Meath, who sold a €2.7 million winning ticket in June of this year, said ticket sales ahead of the draw had become "considerably larger".
"Talk of a large jackpot creates a curiosity around the Lotto and the greater the jackpot, the greater the interest people have in the draw," he said.
Mr Tierney said although a lot of players were hoping for an early Christmas windfall, he would expect a similar level of interest in such a large prize pool, regardless of the time of year.
No Lotto player had seen their numbers drawn from the drum since November 14th. The last time that the Lotto jackpot reached such a level was in July of this year, but it was not won on that occasion and it rolled over again to the record €16 million prize.
That jackpot was won by the Cunningham family from Fairhill, Co Cork, whose €4 QuickPick ticket scooped the jackpot, a result of 12 consecutive rollovers.
The organisers of the National Lottery increased the game to a 45-number draw last year, in an attempt to generate extra interest and compete with the lucrative EuroMillions game.
To date this year, the jackpot has only been won once in every four draws, and 48 Lotto draws have exceeded €4 million.
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