Life's a beach in Bettystown... for one lucky lotto winner

Speculation has been rife in Bettystown over the past few days as to the identity of the new Lotto millionaire who took a half share in last Saturday night's €11,526,001 jackpot, the biggest prize so far this year. The winning ticket was sold in the Tesco supermarket in Bettystown on Saturday and at the time of going to press had not been claimed. The winning ticket was a €6 stake with a mixture of a quickpick and chosen numbers and the winning line consisted of chosen numbers. Sandra Smith, personnel manager at Tesco, Bettystown, said she had no clues about the identify of the winner. She said it was impossible to say if the winner was a local because the seaside village was full of tourists and day trippers on what was a lovely sunny day. She said they were so busy they had two staff operating the Lotto machine on Saturday. "Hundreds of people would have bought tickets so it could have been anyone. We have been particularly busy in the past week as the local caravan parks have all opened," she said. The store will receive €7,500 as seller of winning tickets and the money will be distributed to the staff's social clubs. She said they were delighted to have sold the winning ticket and there was a great buzz in the supermarket and the village since the win. Local resident, Tom Kelly, said there had been great excitement and speculation since news of the win broke, but he said it could have been anyone who bought the winning ticket. "We had a lot of daytrippers and people passing through over the weekend. It would be lovely if it was a local but we have no way of knowing." Saturday's prize was the 11th largest jackpot in the history of the Lotto. The biggest ever jackpot of €18,963,441 was won by a 16-strong syndicate in 2008. The Bettystown winner shared the prize with Giustina Macari whose family run a takeaway in Kildare.