Biggest Online Lotto Winners

Lotteries are popular, fast-paced and low-cost forms of entertainment that people from all across the world engage in. Luckily, some even managed to grab life-changing prizes. Discover their identities, the stories behind these fateful events and, of course, find out who’s the biggest lottery winner of all!

The Biggest Online Lotto Winners UK

According to Statista, from 2019 to 2023, the share of UK participants in the National Lottery has gone from 28.6% to 27.6%. This figure represents all respondents who participated in lottery draws at least once in the past four weeks. These numbers show a relatively steady preference of UK gamblers towards lotteries in general that spans several years, as they’re among the most popular casino games locally, next to slots and scratchcards.

As such, it’s not surprising at all that some of the biggest lottery winners come from the UK. Here are their stories:

Name: Mark Gardiner and Paul Maddison

On Wednesday, the 9th of December 1995, a couple of business partners by the names of Mark Gardiner and Paul Maddison won a whopping £22.6 million jackpot playing the National Lottery. This instantly set a new record and produced a destiny-altering event for both individuals. The two ran a double glazing business together, and hit the six lucky numbers at the same time. The pair split the winnings equally; however, this would also mark the end of their friendship.

Mark Gardiner kept a low profile over the years and decided to continue working on the business and not let his half of the win get to his head. On the other hand, Paul was unfortunately struck by a series of unlucky events soon after. After the win, he decided to leave the business and bought a castle in Scotland. He was left by his wife and lived a reclusive life until 2024, when he passed away alone in his Perthshire flat at age 73.

Name: Iris Jeffrey

The UK’s National Lottery has created over 4,000 millionaires since its inception. A fun fact to note is that most of them come from Northern Ireland. Next in our list of the biggest online lottery winners we have Iris J Jeffrey, a woman from Belfast and, sadly, also a cancer sufferer. She had forgotten about her ticket for three weeks, leading to a public effort to track her down and a lost interest of £50,000, due to the delay in collecting the prize.

When she was handed her cheque, she specified her first priority would be to buy her 62-year old husband, Robert, a new car. At first, she was in shock when checking the lucky numbers against her tickets, but then began to plan what she was going to do with the prize. At the same time, she became a grandmother and she stated wanting to spoil the ’new arrival’ to the family. After major surgery to remove a tumour, Iris escaped the public eye. Both her and her family asked to be granted privacy.

Name: Anonymous

For obvious reasons like security and privacy, many of the biggest UK lottery winners choose to remain anonymous. Such is the case of a ticket holder from the UK who won the grand EuroMillions jackpot on Tuesday, the 19th of July 2022, earning an insane £195,707,000. This marked a new record in the rundown of the National Lottery biggest winners that hasn’t been surpassed since.

After the prize was claimed, the National Lottery representatives mentioned they will not release whether the winner is an individual or a syndicate, unless they decide to go public themselves. We should mention how amazing this feat was, statistically, considering that a single person or organization guessed both the winning EuroMillions numbers (6,23,27,40,41), plus the Lucky Star numbers 2 and 12.

World’s Biggest Online Lottery Winners

Once again, Statista presents us with truly eye-opening information about the popularity of online lottery worldwide. In fact, according to a recent survey, it’s estimated that the online lottery market will reach US$16.94 billion in 2024. On top, the number of worldwide participants is expected to reach 42.5 million by 2029. Naturally, the biggest lottery winners in the world come from various locations, such as the US or Canada. Online lottery in India is also a staple choice for locals.

Name: Edwin Castro

On November 7 2022, Edwin Castro, a man from California, became the biggest Powerball lottery winner in history and a new Guinness World Record holder. He won the largest jackpot for a single ticket and the largest cash value for a single ticket at once, amounting to a staggering $2.04 billion.

The man bought a dream home valued at $25 million in Hollywood and another one in his hometown. His ticket was purchased at Joe’s Service Centre in Altadena, California. The location also received a $1 million bonus for selling it. Edwin opted to receive a lump sum of the jackpot, so he was handed out $997.6 million.

Did you know?

It’s not just players who are incentivized to try various lotteries via promotions or special deals. In fact, in many American states but also other parts of the world, retailers receive a percentage for selling winning tickets. For example, the California Lottery offers one half of one percent for the following draws: Powerball, Mega Millions, SuperLotto Plus, Fantasy 5 and Daily Derby. If a retailer sells a $12 million SuperLotto Plus or Mega Millions Jackpot, they get a bonus of $60,000! Other states have more restrictive laws. For instance, the maximum bonus awarded by the Pennsylvania Lottery is $100,000, which is granted for selling tickets of at least $10,000,001 or more.

To add a touch of controversy to the event, a man named Jose Rivera sued Edwin Castro and claimed he stole the ticket from him. However, representatives from The California Lottery didn’t substantiate these claims and further confirmed Edwin Castro to be the rightful winner.

Name: Group of Winners represented by Theodorus Struyck

The following contenders in our top 10 biggest lottery winners list are actually a group, represented by Theodorus ’Theo’ Struyck. This group of winners collectively purchased a PowerBall ticket in a store in Kern Country and were lucky enough to strike the second largest win in the lottery’s history of roughly $1.765 billion.

We have limited information about the identity of the others, but Struyck was described as a 65-year old man who only lived 500 yards away from the store. The Midway Market also received a $1 million bonus for selling the ticket.

Unfortunately, as it is the case with most lottery winners, Theo’s neighbours have already expressed great concern and urged him to get security in case other people might try to harm him or abduct him to get the prize.

Name: Unknown

The biggest Mega Millions jackpot was struck on August 8 2023, by an anonymous player from Florida who matched all six numbers. The win amounted to $1.6 billion. The winning numbers were 13,19,20,32 and 33, and the gold Mega Ball was 14. According to the local laws, the winner has two options: receive a lump payout sum of $794.2 million or 30 periodic payments amounting to the total of $1.6 billion. Both refer to pre-tax amounts.

This was the highest lottery prize granted by the Mega Millions, seamlessly surpassing the previous record of $1.537 billion from October 23, 2018, belonging to a South Carolina player.

Most Popular Lotteries To Play Online (UK)

As the numbers show us (no pun intended!), British gamblers love participating in various lotteries. Since it’s a pure game of chance, lottery has the advantage of low cost and high accessibility. Anyone can buy a ticket in person or online, you don’t have to master any specific game rules and, if the lucky stars align, you could walk home with a massive prize. Here are the Brits’ top preferred lotteries and where you can play them, if you’re also interested:

EuroMillions

EuroMillions is a transnational lottery, meaning players from various European countries such as the UK, France, Spain or Belgium can participate.

To win the jackpot, you must match seven correct numbers, namely 5 main numbers and 2 Lucky Star Numbers. In the UK, the cost to participate has increased moderately over the years from £1.50 in 2009 to £2.50 in 2016. For Brits, the jackpot is also tax-free and paid as a lump sum.

Participation is possible by purchasing tickets from local sales outlets or online casino platforms. Draws for the EuroMillions occur on Tuesday and Friday evenings, and there’s a guaranteed minimum jackpot value of €17 million, which can increase to €250 million.

Jackpot Millions

Jackpot Millions is the name of a lottery organized by an MGA and UKGC-licensed casino website called Jackpot.com. It’s available exclusively online and has a fixed jackpot amount of £1 million. Participants have a 1 in 5 chance of winning a free bet bonus as well.

Members of this hub can partake in a new lottery draw every day at 21:00 CET (20:00 GMT). To play, the cost is as little as £1.5 per line.

Participants must select numbers from 1-50 and a Magic Ball from 1-5, place their tickets and wait for the result, which is obtained through the use of the RNG (Random Number Generator) technology. Winners are informed via e-mail, but there is also a results page available on the website that players can consult manually to compare their numbers with the winning .

UK Powerball

The UK Powerball is an exciting online lottery that offers a £4.2 million jackpot every Wednesday and Saturday. The minimum investment to participate is £1.50 per line, and you have six different ways of winning.

You must select six numbers from 1 to 50, and one Powerball number from 1 to 5. You may also use the Quick Pick option that randomly selects numbers for you, if you’re undecided. Furthermore, you can pay in advance and even set up a subscription for up to four weeks, so you never miss a single draw. Then, you can follow the results online and, if you’ve won, you’ll also be contacted by the platform you played on.

The total jackpot pool will be shared between players, so if more than one person matches all the number combinations in a single draw, the amount gets split equally. Aside from the massive £4.2 jackpot, there are other fixed-value prizes. For these ones, you’ll get the full amount no matter how many other winners exist.

Lottery Winners Break-Down

Conclusion

The positive examples and the stories of the biggest lottery winners outlined above show that Lady Luck can grace you at any moment, if you want to be in for a chance of winning, try your luck with a lottery ticket and who knows, you could be one of the next future lotto winners!