When it comes to winning money, one of the most popular ways people try their luck is the lottery. If you’re unfamiliar with it, you choose random numbers on a lottery ticket and hope they match the ones drawn.
If you can match all the numbers drawn, you win or share the jackpot. Big lottery wins are now commonplace as there are different draws taking place every week, with people becoming millionaires overnight.
British Lottery Winners
Picture this; you’re sitting on your sofa in your fluffy pyjamas, clutching that magical bit of paper – a UK National Lottery ticket – your heart pounding as the winning numbers start to roll out. Sounds like a dream. Well, for some incredibly lucky Brits, this dream was cranked up to eleven when their lives were transformed in the most jaw-dropping manner!
If you fancy a good chinwag about lottery wins that have sent the winner’s bank balance into the stratosphere, grab a chair and keep reading. Here are some of the most mind-boggling National Lottery wins in the UK.
Scottish Winners
Let’s start with Colin and Chris Weir from Scotland, who woke up one morning in July 2011, did a double take and realised they weren’t just rich, but ‘we’ve-got-our-own-gold-plated-unicorn’ rich. The duo won an eye-popping £161 million, making them richer than Tom Jones and Sir Cliff Richard combined. Now that’s a lotta “Green, Green Grass of Home”!
Anonymous Wins
Then there’s the anonymous winner in October 2018, who won a whopping £170 million. Talk about incognito mode on steroids! They chose to remain nameless (and can you blame them?), but somewhere out there, someone is living it up and probably swimming in a pool of champagne as we speak.
But hold on to your hats, folks! Because the record for the biggest UK National Lottery win goes to another secret squirrel in December 2019, winning a mind-boggling £170.2 million. This champion of chance beat the previous record by a mere £200,000. Sure, it’s pocket change when you’re a multi-millionaire, but every penny counts, right?
Let’s take a moment to fantasise about how many fish and chips you could buy with £170.2 million, or how many pints at the pub, or how many custom-made royal corgis. Heck, you could even start your own football team and call it ‘Money United’!
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Oh, and here’s a fun fact for you – if you stacked £170.2 million worth of £1 coins, you could reach the International Space Station… and back… twice! Now, isn’t that a cosmic thought?
Biggest American Jackpots
Let’s have a look at some lucky Americans who didn’t have to depend on a rich, long-lost uncle to have their bank accounts experience a seismic shock of seismic proportions.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane to January 2016, when the Powerball jackpot hit a record-breaking $1.586 billion. Billion! With a B! Three winning tickets had the golden numbers. The winners were from California, Florida, and Tennessee, and after a lot of number crunching, they each walked away with a cool $327.8 million. That’s not just “see you later, debt” money, that’s “hello, personal theme park and gold-plated popcorn machine” money!
Then there’s Mavis Wanczyk of Massachusetts, who had a bit of an ‘oops’ moment when she won the $758.7 million Powerball jackpot in August 2017. Mavis went from health care worker to multimillionaire in the blink of an eye, proving once and for all that you really can get rich quicker than saying “double-shot, no-foam, extra-hot, caramel macchiato”.
But wait, there’s more! The biggest single-ticket jackpot win in history is an awe-inspiring $1.537 billion on the Mega Millions, won by an anonymous person in South Carolina in October 2018. They walked away with a lump sum of $877.8 million after taxes. Just imagine, you could buy 219 million Big Macs with that! Or, you know, a few islands and a rocket, if you’re into that kind of thing.
Here’s a funny thought: if you lined up $1.537 billion in one-dollar bills, it would stretch from New York to Hawaii and back.
So, folks, there you have it. A round-up of the biggest American Lotto wins that have been made thus far. So, grab your lucky horseshoe and toast the possibility that we might someday join these illustrious ranks of accidental millionaires!
Winning Big On The Slots
Slots are popular in Vegas as they offer bigger prizes than standard bar machines.
At the Excalibur Casino in Las Vegas in 2003, one lucky person played the Megabucks slot machine, using just $100, and walked away with the jackpot of $39.7 million. This is the largest slot machine jackpot in history and may never be beaten.
In 2017, a man from Aberdeen deposited £30 and won a staggering £6.3 million jackpot using just £4.
The win was achieved by playing the Hall of Gods slot game. It shows you do not have to spend big when playing online to be in with a chance of winning.
If you want to try your luck at Platin Casino, you will find a great selection of games. Including a range of Mega Moolah slot games that carry big jackpots, some worth over £2 million.
The good thing about playing Mega Moolah slots is the jackpot increases over time. In the United States, the biggest jackpot seen to date when playing Mega Moolah, a fantastic $22.4 million.
