The National Lottery has said one lucky – or potentially very unlucky – player has just days left to claim a €500,000 winning prize ticket bought in a Co Donegal shop.
The winning ticket was purchased on Friday 10 October at Darnell’s Spar and Applegreen filling station on the Portnoo Road, Ardara.
It was a Daily Million Plus draw, with the winning numbers 9, 16, 24, 29, 32, 38. The bonus number was 5.
Maireád Darnell, the shop owner, said that there are nine days left during which the ticket holder must claim their winnings.
She said it has been the talk of the parish, as it was assumed the ticket would have been redeemed long ago.
Ms Darnell said there had been “huge excitement” locally following the discovery that the winning ticket had been bought in the area.
“Everybody was expecting that the word would be out within a matter of hours or days as to whether or not it was claimed initially, and hopefully that we would find out who it was.
“No, time has just been ticking by since and I’m afraid we still don’t have a winner,” she said.
Ms Darnell said that a “huge social media campaign” has been undertaken and the National Lottery’s support has been “fantastic”.
She said that the theory is that a local person would be cutting fine at this stage to claim the winnings.
She said where they are located on the ocean’s edge in south-west Donegal, “it’s not a place where we would have a lot of passing through traffic, it’s more a destination place, we do have an awful lot of tourism”.