LOTTO players are being advised to buy their tickets early to avoid a last minute rush for tomorrow's jackpot, which will be worth more than £4 million.
Over 1.5 million adults - almost three in every four in the State - are expected to play the midweek draw which could break the previous jackpot record of £4.43 million. That was won by an anonymous Dublin player in May 1995.
Tomorrow's jackpot is carried over from the weekend's £3,583,902 prize which was not won.
"It could be the biggest ever in the eight and a half years of the game," said a spokesman for the National Lottery, Mr Denis Kirwan.
Between 5 p.m. and 7.30 p.m. tomorrow there will be around 8,000 ticket transactions per minute in the 2,000 Lotto agents throughout the country, according to Mr Kirwan. The odds on a player winning tomorrow's jackpot are five million to one.
The manager of Metro Newsagents on Lower Abbey Street, Dublin, Mr John Byrne, said he expects the rush for Lotto tickets to start today.
"The main bulk will be on Wednesday but there will probably be a couple of syndicates buying their tickets tomorrow," said Mr Byrne, who sold a winning ticket worth £1 million two years ago.