Residents in the Gaeltacht village of Crolly are celebrating today after the National Lottery revealed that a €500,000 All Cash Extravaganza scratch card top prize has been claimed by a lucky Donegal player.
Stephen O’Donnell and staff from O’Donnell’s Mace in Crolly join Fran Whearty from the National Lottery to celebrate their sale of the winning scratchcard.
The winning All Cash Extravaganza scratch card which cost €20 was sold at O’Donnell’s Mace Service Station.
The lucky winner who wishes to keep the win private has revealed that the €500,000 scratch card windfall was the result of a Christmas present gifted from a family member. The delighted Donegal winner said, “I’ve had a couple of weeks to come to terms with being a half million euro richer but it still hasn’t sunk in. Over the Christmas, all of the family exchanged gifts as usual, and one of my relatives handed me a Christmas card with the All Cash scratch card inside. It wasn’t until days later after Christmas that I finally got around to scratching it and my initial reaction was that there must be a mistake on the card – there is no way that I could have won a half million euro just like that.”
After taking a number of weeks to come to terms with their win, the Donegal native discussed plans for the prize, “The first person I told was the kind relative who bought me the scratch card, so that was a very interesting conversation! Of course, my whole family is absolutely thrilled with my win and I plan on splitting up the entire prize between them all so that we can enjoy it together. My plans for my share of the winnings is to pay off my mortgage and some bills and with whatever money I have left over, I will treat myself to a new car and a long sun holiday,” they said.
Celebrating the half-a-million-euro scratchcard sale at O’Donnell’s Mace, Crolly.
Owner of O’Donnell’s Service Station, Stephen O’Donnell was overjoyed with news of the €500,000 win in the locality which he described as ‘truly life-changing’ for one of his customers.
“We’ve been in business in Crolly for over 30 years, and I’ve never seen that level of excitement in the village that this win has brought. We have been absolutely inundated with people from the village coming to the store to speak of their excitement of the win. We are just thrilled for the winners and we hope that they enjoy their prize. We’ve had quite a lot of media interest too. At this stage, I have done more media interviews than any politician in the country!” he said.
Nearly 30 cent in every €1 spent on all National Lottery games goes back to Good Causes in the areas of sport, youth, health, welfare, education, arts, heritage and the Irish Language. In total more than €5.6 Billion has been raised for Good Causes since the National Lottery was established 32 years ago. In 2019 alone, €250 million was raised for local Good Causes in communities across Ireland.
Want to share that winning feeling? Play EuroMillions. Tuesday’s EuroMillions jackpot is heading for a truly life-changing €17 million (est). Play EuroMillions in-store, online or using the National Lottery App before 7.30 pm by Tuesday evening for your chance to win.
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