Wolverhampton one of UK's luckiest for lottery wins
Wolverhampton is still one of the luckiest places to live as far as taking a punt on tomorrow's biggest ever National Lottery rollover is concerned, say Camelot chiefs.
The city comes eighth in the national Top 10 of lottery windfalls over £50,000 since the game was launched in 1994 - and tops the leader board for similar wins over the past decade.
The UK's biggest ever Lotto jackpot is sending ticket sales soaring ahead of an estimated £57.8 million up for grabs - and the promise that it must be either won or shared out this weekend.
National Lottery operator Camelot said it expects to sell 200 tickets a second during the hour before the draw.
The latest Wolverhampton winner was a retired mystery man, known only as Mr W, who raked in £52,096 in August 2015 after matching five main numbers plus the bonus ball on the internet, using the cash to pay off his mortgage.
But the biggest win remains Wednesfield couple Tom and Rita Naylor who were the biggest winners to go public when they scooped £15.5 million in 2001. The massive prize had built up after the Lottery Extra jackpot went unclaimed for 20 draws.
Five years later Irene and Ron Jones, from Bilston, won £9.3m after picking all six numbers on a triple rollover jackpot. The stunned couple, who bought their ticket on Friday the 13th, said they would never believe in superstitions again after smashing a mirror just hours before buying the ticket from their local Woolworths.
Just a month afterwards, 18 members of a syndicate from Willenhall-based Arcelor SSC UK steel company celebrated landing their £5m share of the EuroMillions draw.
In 1998 mother-of-two Georgina Cox celebrated a £1.6m win. The 35-year-old from Wednesfield had been watching a film when she realised she had matched all six numbers in the midweek draw.
Mrs Cox, a senior supervisor at New Cross Hospital, said she was 'gobsmacked' by her good fortune.
According to statistics compiled by Camelot, the favourite holiday destinations among lottery winners are the USA, Dubai, the Canary Islands, Caribbean, Australia, Mallorca, Egypt, Portugal, Maldives and Canada.
The top five purchases made by winners are a house, car, jewellery, caravan/motor home and a hot tub. The cars favoured by lottery winners are a Land Rover, Audi, Jaguar, Mercedes and a Ford.
The postcodes are rated by the number of major prize wins of £50,000 and above per head of population. Top of the league, with more winners than anywhere else in the country, is Romford in Essex, followed by Sunderland, Newcastle-upon Tyne, Liverpool, Enfield, Warrington and Bromley. Below Wolverhampton come Dartford in Kent and Dundee, Scotland.
In May 2013, Wolverhampton boasted no fewer than 32 million-pound winners with a total of 212 people having won £50,000 or more.
In a survey carried out by National Savings and Investments, which runs premium bonds, in 2007, Walsall was officially ranked the unluckiest in the West Midlands when it comes to winning high value premium bond prizes.
