Meath prize bond holders win over €1.8m

County Meath residents are some of the luckiest people in the country, having won €1,811,950 with prize bonds last year. This is according to the Prize Bond Company’s 2013 Annual Report which has just been published.
Meath’s total winnings of €1,811,950 were won by 15,279 bond holders. One lucky Meath winner won the €1 million prize.
Prize bonds remain as popular as ever with record sales of €476 million prize bonds contributing to a 17 per cent increase in the fund value to almost €2 bn (€1.928 billion), the highest in the history of the Prize Bond Scheme.
The number of cash prizes won was 475,116, up 8.3 per cent on 2012. The top prize bonds prize is €1 million in the last draw of each second month. In the other weekly draws the top prize is €20,000 with other cash prizes including five at €1,000, 250 at €100 and over 8,000 at €50.
Prize bonds are a State savings product which, instead of paying interest, offer bond holders the chance to win cash prizes every week. All winnings are tax-free, and prize bonds can be cashed in at any time after the minimum holding period of three months.
At the end of 2013, unclaimed prizes accumulated over the past 56 years amounted to €2.19 million, which represents less than 0.5 per cent of the value of prizes awarded since the launch of the Prize Bond Scheme in 1957.
Unclaimed prizes are held indefinitely until claimed by a prizewinner and after six months earn interest for the prizewinner. All prizes are listed on www.StateSavings.ie