Euro Million's biggest lottery winner didn't know she had won €126 million (US$170 million) because she was in bed with flu.
The lucky but ill woman was the only jackpot winner of Friday's Euro Millions drawing.
She failed to realize her numbers had come up until she dragged herself to work on Monday to save herself from being fired in recession-hit Spain.
The unnamed 25-year-old, from Majorca, said, "I still had flu on Monday but with the crisis we are going through, I decided I had to go to work anyway out of fear of losing my job."
She had bought her ticket from an internet vendor, who repeatedly tried to contact her by email and phone over the weekend.
But she ignored them all because she was sick, before finally answering their call at work.
Jose Mieres, director of the Web site serviapuestas.es, said, "When she found out, she was shocked and incredibly emotional at the same time."
"She was asking lots of questions, and we immediately put in place the protocol for these cases. They will come to Madrid and we will tell them how to act during the first days. We will explain to them the process of collecting their winnings and we will give them financial advice if they ask for it."
The winner, who is unmarried but has a boyfriend, picked all seven numbers — 4, 23, 24, 29, 31 and lucky stars 9 and 8 — for Friday night's draw.
Friday's jackpot had rolled over six times because nobody in the six European countries where tickets are sold had matched the correct seven numbers since March 20.
She will now pick up the biggest Euro Millions jackpot check ever awarded to a single person — for €126 million.
Previous record holder, Ireland's Delores McNamara, won £77 million in 2005.
See young people win too! WTG! Lucky boyfriend or is it good bye boyfriend!
CONGRATS To the lucky ill lady
its funny that you can,t use an american credit card to buy euro millions tickets ,but you can use the same cerdit card to buy all the american lottery tickets you want ,on line.whats wrong with this picture.
hey TODD,,,,,,thanks again for the write-up...
Congrats to the lucky winner!
Awesome! Congrats to the winner! She is set......I would try and get out of Spain as soon as possible. If she would like to come to America...I would be glad to show her around! LOL
Amazing. Congrats to her!
Congratulations
If thats what it takes to win a jackpot,then bring on the flu.I can put up with a little vomiting and diarhera for that kind of money!
She gave me a great idea,i will buy my ticket online too!
Congrats to her!
Some people have all the luck! can anyone tell me if there' re having problems with betslip.com.
Congratulations to the big jackpot winner...she is very very lucky.
No you can't. Buying American lottery tickets is a strictly cash affair. I'm surprised nobody corrected you unless I am wrong and guys will come out to correct me.
Yeah at 25 the young lady with no children has time and energy to put the money to good use, I wish her success in that.
hello maringman,
what about betslips.com.
We're talking about ON LINE Tickets maringman
Most US Americans do not realize that the US is almost the only country in the world that taxes gambling winnings. The others usually do tax only those who operate gambling businesses. As a result this lucky young Spanish lady will keep her entire sum of E126 million (US$170 million).
Also a comment about the Megamillions and Powerball Jackpots. They are the pretax total amount of payouts over about 30 years and therefore are quite deceptive when comparing the amount posted for the Euromillions which is actually the real amount and no taxes.
Unfortunately if a US resident had gone to Europe and bought the winning ticket, he would not owe any taxes in Europe, but his Uncle Sam would require him to declare the winnings as income and pay the full income tax on it here.
The USA should join the rest of the world and quit taxing gambling winnings like most civilized countries.
Thanks robroy
I hope she doesn't have swine flu!
****CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNER*******
I have an uncles who's truly named sam but I have never met him and I'm sure this isn't him so I would have my EuroMillions Jackpot winnings deposited into my bank account in London and do like they say DONT ASK DONT TELL Europe here I come again.....
congratulations to the winner!
I too am not aware of being able to buy lottery tickets in the USA from the State Lottery Offices. Is it a third party that operates online lottery purchaes? if yes, Do you receive a receipt showing what number you played and amounts prior to the drawing? Who are they regulated by?
I use to paly euro millions on line also,a few years ago,,until the us courts ruled againest it
It's official ... I was just visiting IllinoisLottery.com and I noticed that one can now on-line subscription, credit card purchase: Lotto, Little Lotto, and MegaMillions tickets (the MegaMillions tickets even give you bonus advance plays if you purchase 26 or 52 weeks of tickets at the same time).
Soon more states will begin allowing folks to purchase advance play MegaMillions subscription tickets on-line too.
Brings back ancient (when I was 7 or so) memories of an ad in (a comic book?) someplace saying someone won $100K while "home in bed with the flu".
Many of the subscriptions (i.e. NY) require that you be a resident of the State you're getting the subscription. True online play should be done entirely via internet and such that potentially anyone in the world could participate.
I have ""won"" several Lotteries around the world: the Nigerian Lottery, the World Lotto, and some other Euro Something Lotto, for a total of approx. 29 billion dollars in various currencies some of which I didn't know exist. I was notified via e-mail on these, from some "Barrister" person (someone from Starbucks?? They got that over there??), and still eagerly waiting for that 1st check... those "processing fees" are a bit steep but hey I'll be a millionare.. and that Photoshopped ID card with the blurry emblem and the shifted watermark looks sooooo convincing! I guess if I got a notification I won Euro Millions I'd've clicked the Report Spam button.