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UK lottery creates a record number of millionaires in 2016

The whole point of the lottery for consumers is to create millionaires and change people’s lives with huge winnings, and it would seem that 2016 has set a record for doing exactly that. The United Kingdom’s lottery operator, Camelot, announced that the lottery system was able to create 347 new millionaires during 2016. This amounted to a new millionaire being awarded almost every single day of the year. The previous record was set the previous year in 2015 when 341 people were made millionaires with a stroke of luck, meaning this new record beat it out by 6 lucky participants.

Every millionaire winner received a check for £1 million or more at some point of the year, with over £862 million being awarded in total which would also amount to $1.06 billion. There were a lot of changes that were set up with the lottery system this past year, and so it’s noteworthy that a record was still set despite concerns. One of the biggest changes was changing the number of balls in the Lotto from 49 to 59, resulting in a decreased chance of winning a jackpot. The previous odds had been one in 14 million and were adjusted to one in 45 million after the change. Surprisingly, this didn’t seem to have a negative impact on the number of millionaire winners.

David and Carol Martin claimed the biggest win of the year from the National Lottery when they brought home a prize worth £66 million, which would amount to $81.1 million. This win had barely squeaked its way into 2016 when it was won on January 9th. There was another EuroMillions jackpot that came close at the amount of £61 million that had been won by the Davies family out of Monmouth, which would equate to a little over $74 million in winnings. This jackpot had been picked up in the month of July.

With EuroMillions being the biggest winner out of all the UK lotteries, it’s interesting that the odds faced some of the biggest changes this year. EuroMillions increased each line by 50 percent up to £2.50 when the Lucky Star number had been introduced into the game. This changed the odds from one in 117 million up to one in 140 million.

The biggest month of the entire year was September. This month had 53 players that became millionaires, meaning that there were almost two new millionaires each day of the month. In terms of professions, manufacturing and sales workers managed to place in third in regards to the amount of people that earned over a million pounds. Coming in first were cabbies and lorry drivers. Fourth-placed was well-earned by the teacher’s career category.

With the start of the new year it will be exciting to see what new changes come into play with the lottery system and if players will be able to shatter the record once again for the third year running.