The 1,587th drawing of the EuroMillions lottery took place on Tuesday, December and had a jackpot of €142 million.
The winning numbers for the EuroMillions lottery drawing were 12, 20, 25, 26 and 27, while 08 and 12 were the Lucky Star numbers.
The massive jackpot was won by a single ticket that had been purchased in Belgium. More than 27 million tickets had been purchased for the draw, but only one of them had managed to match all the numbers to win.
Syndicate win
It turns out that the EuroMillions jackpot was scooped up by a group of villagers in Belgium who had formed a syndicate to play the lottery.
Residing in the Antwerp province, a total of 165 people from Olmen, Belgium had entered the EuroMillions lottery draw and were delighted to discover that they had won the massive €142 million jackpot.
This would result in a share of €860,000 for every resident. The group had purchased their tickets from the same newsagents named De Pershoek, which is known in English as The Press Corner.
The group had paid equally for the tickets and made a pack that all winnings would be divided equally, should they win.
A spokesperson for the National Lottery, Joke Vermoere said that all of the 165 residents had contributed €15 each to buy the tickets from the newsagent in Olmen.
The reaction
The spokesperson said that it was not the first time that such a group syndicate had been organized by De Pershoek, but it was certainly the first time for them to have won such a huge amount.
The owner of the newsagent who sold the ticket, Wim Van Broekhoven said that a number of his customers just could not believe that they had won.
He said that he had had to repeat it at least five to six times. The reaction of the winners was somewhere between euphoria and stoicism. Some called it a great Christmas present.
Other syndicates
It is not the first time that people have formed a syndicate to play, as many decide to pool in their money because it increases their chances of winning the grand prize.
However, things do not always go according to plan. Lawyers had to be called in by a syndicate because one of the group members had been accused of keeping a jackpot worth £828,000.
Court papers showed that Western Australia’s Trent Bowden had purchased tickets for ten friends using the same numbers each week.
But, it is alleged that when they did finally win the draw, Trent tried to claim the prize for himself and not for the group. He is now facing a lawsuit.
The next EuroMillions lottery draw is now scheduled for Friday, December 9th and it can be played in nine countries in Europe, including the United Kingdom, Portugal, Belgium, Austria, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland.
