A Welsh mother could still claim a £12,000,000 National Lottery jackpot even though a shop assistant threw away her winning ticket. Kath Main, 46, from Abercynon, played her usual lucky numbers on Saturday, June 6, which turned out to be the winning numbers for that draw. However, when her mother Fiona went to the local Londis store to check the ticket, she was told it had not won, and the shop owner discarded it.
The mistake only came to light when the family saw the winning numbers published in the newspaper, accompanied by a note stating that the jackpot had been won in the Rhondda Cynon Taf area. Kath told The Sun that her winning numbers – 8, 10, 26, 30, 35, and 42 – are based on her and her husband Marcus's birthdays, their ages when they started playing, and two random numbers to make up the six.
Claim Process and Waiting Period
Without the physical ticket, Kath, who works as a rugby club secretary, must wait until December 3 to claim the prize, assuming no one else comes forward. She said she 'feels sick all the time' during the waiting period, having already planned to spend some of the money on a Lions rugby tour in New Zealand.
Shop owner Karan Kumar explained the situation: 'The woman came in to check the numbers and there was no beep on the machine, nothing came up on the screen, so we just binned them.' Lottery play at the South Wales Londis is now suspended, but Karan added it would 'be amazing if [Kath] won.'
National Lottery's Policy on Lost Tickets
A spokesperson for Allwyn, the operator of The National Lottery, said: 'We are the only major lottery which is able to look to pay a winner even if they have lost their ticket.' The investigation process is designed to ensure any claim comes from the rightful ticketholder. 'We are then able, at our discretion, to pay that player once the claim period has expired 180 days after the draw.' The spokesperson also highlighted that the lottery pays out millions in prizes and raises over £33 million for Good Causes each week.
Comparison with Italian Winner
Kath's situation is somewhat more fortunate than that of an anonymous player in Italy who won €1 million but threw away his ticket, thinking it was worthless. That player tracked down the waste lorry that had taken the ticket to a dump, where workers managed to find it after two days of searching through rubbish. The shop in the southern Italian region of Puglia, where the ticket was bought, had told him it was 'non-payable,' which they misinterpreted as meaning he hadn't won, when in fact it meant the winnings were too large to be processed at the shop. The workers who found the ticket also landed £50 on a scratchcard for themselves.
