Almost 150 Lotto players were just one number away from sharing the €19 million prize in the must-win draw — after picking numbers that appear in a diagonal pattern on the game’s playslips.
A total of 149 ticketholders collected a cheque for €36,687 after matching five numbers and the bonus number in the ‘will-be-won’ game that ended the 62-draw drought.
We launched an investigation after it emerged that a higher than average number of players won the Match 5 + Bonus prize in the January 15 draw.
Our investigative work established these players had tickets with numbers that appear in the specific pattern of a diagonal line on the Lotto playslip.
This revelation will likely change the way many players choose their numbers for Lotto games over fears they will have to share prizes with hundreds of other ticketholders if they hit the jackpot.
There were 149 winners of the second highest prize tier — Match 5 + Bonus — on January 15 compared to just 26 winners for this prize tier in the previous 20 draws combined.
An average of 1.3 people win the the Match 5 + Bonus prize in each draw — but this rose to 149 ticketholders in the ‘will-be-won’ draw.
The winning numbers for the must-win Lotto draw on January 15 were 2, 9, 16, 30, 37, 40 and the bonus was 23.
The numbers 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 and 37 all appear in a diagonal line on the Lotto playslips.
Had the number 23 been drawn in the first six numbers instead of 40, it's likely these 149 players would have shared the €19,060,800 prize — and come away with just €127,924.82 each.
A spokesperson for the National Lottery said the large number of players who bought tickets for the must-win draw combined with the number of players who matched a combination of the drawn numbers at this prize tier led to the anomaly.
The spokesperson said: “The Lotto is a game of chance and therefore the increase in the number of prize winners at these levels was likely due to a number of factors such as the combination of numbers which were drawn on the night and due to the number of players who matched a combination of these numbers at varying prize tiers.”
Mathematician Eamonn Toland said Lotto players should never pick their numbers if they want to win the jackpot.
Mr Toland, who is the founder of themathstutor.ie, said there is no way a player can increase their odds of winning the Lotto — but players can decrease the odds of having to share a prize if they buy Quick Pick tickets instead of choosing numbers.
He said: “We can literally see what has happened. The players went for a diagonal pattern.
“Visually, it’s a diagonal pattern. Or the other way of looking at it is they went up in sevens.
“So they started on 2 and went up in multiples of sevens. Each of those players most likely picked the numbers.
“The 40 number was the only one that came out that they didn’t pick in the pattern.
“There was an average of 1.3 people matching the Match 5 + Bonus per draw. So roughly two per week.
“For that to go to 149 is crazy. You could argue that there were more people playing and the people who were playing were buying more lines.
“That probably did happen but not to that extent. Both those factors bump up the likelihood of sharing a prize but for it to go from one to 149 is exceptional.
“The pattern is the main thing that caused so many winners. The winner’s numbers don’t have a pattern if you mark them on a playslip. They bought a Quick Pick ticket.”
Mr Toland said players should buy Quick Pick tickets to avoid playing in patterns.
He said: “People tend to go with patterns but that’s a bad idea.
“Ultimately, you want to avoid sharing the jackpot and the way to do that is to avoid patterns.
“To pick randomly, go for Quick Pick and let the machine pick random numbers.
“You could end up with the same numbers as someone else but it’s much less likely.”
Irish players will never again see a capped jackpot rolling for months as under new Lotto game rules the jackpot will remain capped for a maximum of five draws.
If there is no outright jackpot winner on the fifth draw at the cap, the entire jackpot fund flows down to the next winning prize tier.
