by Emmet McElhatton
A LIFFORD man whose lottery ticket landed him an £800 prize has been told he will have to travel to Wales if he wants to collect his winnings.
Kieran Gallagher was in Strabane on July 13 when he decided to try his luck in a local shop.
“I bought a lotto ticket two miles from my house, drove home, and, low and behold, just a couple of hours later, my numbers came up and I had won £800. We were ecstatic!”
However, the particular slip that Mr Gallagher had acquired was a UK National Lottery HotPick – which it turns out are not payable to addresses in the Republic of Ireland.
“I went to Ballymagorry Post Office, which would always have been the place we’d have lifted our winnings if we got lucky in the UK lotto,” he continued. “But when I got there they told me that it was all done online now.
“That was alright. I didn’t mind that. I went back to the house and turned on the computer and went about claiming the cash.
“Then, next thing, I was told that the UK National Lottery does not send winnings to the Republic of Ireland and that I would have to go to Wales to collect my £800.
“As you can imagine, I wasn’t one bit happy about that. I bought it two miles down the road and now I am being told I’ll have to book a flight or get a ferry to lift my money. There was no disclaimer on the ticket to say this was going to be the case. I lifted the phone and rang National Lottery Headquarters.”
Mr Gallagher claims he then had to wait in a queue for a considerable length of time, before eventually getting through to a member of staff.
“When I eventually got speaking with someone they told me they were very sorry but there was nothing they could do and that the rules were the rules. There was no wiggle-room or even, commonsense. It didn’t matter what I said, they weren’t budging.”
Mr Gallagher explained how, for the first month after the draw, he rang a couple of times every week, hoping that somebody would give him a fair hearing.
“I was determined at the start.,” he said. “I was getting knocked back time after time, but I thought there was bound to be somebody who would hear what I was saying. But it never happened. With every call, I became more and more resigned to the fact that they have their way of operating and it doesn’t matter what you say.
“Besides, it was costing us a fortune calling them up every few days. If I had kept going, I’d probably have worked up an £800 phone bill long before I ever seen my winnings.”
Concluding Mr Gallagher said, “Let this be a warning to anybody else from across the border who is tempted to do the lotto in the North.
Don’t do it. It’s a waste of money and a load of hassle that you don’t need. It’s a joke what they are doing, but I don’t think there is much chance of us changing UK National Lottery policy.”
The UK National Lottery were contacted by this newspaper in relation to Mr Gallagher’s claims but said they were unable to issue a response by the time of going to print.
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