John Pitt logged into his account after matching three numbers and a star in the EuroMillions draw
A pensioner says he feels “cheated” after finding out how much he’d won when he matched three numbers and a star on the EuroMillions.
In last Friday’s draw, May 31, John Pitt realised he had won a prize after matching three numbers and a star. The 72-year-old went online to check how much money he he’d won, but was “astonished” to discover his three-plus-one-star prize of £6.50, was 10 pence lower than the £6.60 amount tickets holder who had matched three numbers could claim.
The Everton man told the ECHO: “I thought, ‘this can’t be right’ so I phoned the National Lottery. The man on the other end came back and told me that the prize for each outcome is determined by how many people won it – and then divided between them. He told me that that’s just the way it is. “
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John continued: “I’m not bothered about the 10p but if I’d have won £100k with my numbers and someone with less numbers had won £110k, that would be a problem.
“They just do whatever they like and there’s no oversight. It’s unbelievable! The way they said: ‘That’s just the way it is’ when they could have said: ‘Oh, sorry, we’ve made a miscalculation and we’ve fixed it’ – that would be better.
“They’ve cheated me and many more. When I contacted the National Lottery, I said: ‘You must have had hundreds of calls like this’ but they said they hadn’t.”
The EuroMillions prize breakdown for Friday May 31 does, in fact, state that three numbers wins £6.60 while three numbers and a star rewards winners with £6.50.
A spokesperson for Allwyn, the operator of The National Lottery, said: “Unlike some of our other draw-based games, EuroMillions does not have fixed prize tiers and the amount a player wins in a particular draw will be dependent on how many other players have also won in that tier.
“In the draw on 31 May, there were a higher than usual number of match 3+1 winners and, as the prize fund is divided equally between them, this has resulted in the rare scenario whereby the player’s prize is very slightly lower than that of the next winning tier.”
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Robert Johnson is a UK-based business writer specializing in finance and entrepreneurship. With an eye for market trends and a keen interest in the corporate world, he offers readers valuable insights into business developments.
