€162m EuroMillions winner gets prize

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France’s largest lottery jackpot winner has picked up his cheque for €162,256,622, EuroMillions organiser Française des Jeux has confirmed... just as it was revealed that the winner of an €8m Loto jackpot lost out.

FdJ said the winner of the top prize – which was bought in Calvados – had asked to remain anonymous and wanted to delay the announcement of the win until after he had received the cheque ... so that he could “contemplate his win in serenity”.

The company delayed the announcement until today, October 13, as 13 had been his “lucky number” with the 13th draw on the 13th of September.

No details of the winner were revealed and FdJ refused to say in which commune the winning ticket was bought. However, it did say the winner was a “regular player” and was looking to “invest in the French economy” after buying some property.

The winner has become the 246th richest person in France and is the second-top EuroMillions winner, coming behind the Weir family from Coatbridge in Scotland who won €185m in July. Last week a Cambridge couple won €117m.

However, the person who lost the €8m Loto jackpot, which was bought in the Auvergne town of La Chaise Dieu, Haute-Loire on August 13, missed out after not getting in contact with FdJ in the 60 days following the draw.

It is the biggest Loto jackpot to go unclaimed and the prize money will now go into a later draw, to be called the cagnotte de l'inconnu “unknown winner’s pool”

Related story:
Calvados winner for €162m jackpot