Lucky Irish Family Could Be Double Lottery Winners - East Idaho News
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Lucky Irish Family Could Be Double Lottery Winners

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Thinkstock B 032511 LottoTicket?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1345086177761Stockbyte/Thinkstock(LETTERKENNY, Ireland) — The luck of the Irish could be shining down on one family after two winning lottery tickets were sold in shops less than one mile apart.

The town of Letterkenny in County Donegal, Ireland, is abuzz with mystery over who the town’s newly rich neighbors after two 250,000 pound, or nearly $400,000, jackpots were won in Ireland’s Lotto Plus 2 drawing Saturday night by two tickets that matched all six numbers.

One $6 ticket was bought at Mac’s Mace on High Road in the town on Saturday, while another $18 ticket was bought on the same day at The Paper Post on Main Street, just half a mile down the street from Mac’s Mace.

The proximity of the two stores and the close timing has locals and Lotto officials predicting that two members of the same family are both in luck.

“Neither were quick picks so it rules out the possibility that one might have just been a lucky dip,” National Lottery spokeswoman Paula McEvoy told the Irish Times. “Both people used these numbers on purpose. Chances are it could be a husband and wife or a mother and daughter but we can’t say just yet.”

Even before the possible history-making winners come forward, the sale of the two tickets alone has already made history, the first time that two winning tickets had been bought so close together, according to McEvoy.

Adding to the pot, the Lotto Plus 2 contest does not require that winners share the prize, so each winner will get the full 250,000 pound payout for their ticket. If it is two family members, then, the family doubled their winnings to 500,000 pounds.

The winners have 90 days to come forward with their tickets.

“The theory at this stage is that one family member went off to do the lottery on Saturday not knowing that another family member had also done them,” Mac’s Mace store owner Eunan MacIntyre told the Irish Independent. “We just don’t know who bought the ticket in our shop…but we think it would be too much of a coincidence for two people to choose the same numbers.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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