Claim Deadline for Irish Lottery Prizes Extended
The Irish National Lottery has announced that the period for claiming prizes will be extended to account for the disruption caused by the coronavirus crisis. This is to encourage players to stay at home during the public health emergency and help prevent unnecessary journeys to retailers and lottery offices.
The usual claim period runs for 90 days after the winning draw, but this has now been extended by three months. This applies to all in-store and online entries for draws taking place between 9th January 2020 up to the week of 5th July 2020 and covers the following games:
- Lotto and Lotto Plus
- Lotto 54321
- EuroMillions and EuroMillions Plus
- Daily Millions and Daily Millions Plus
- Telly Bingo
The method for claiming prizes remains the same: smaller prizes can be claimed from National Lottery retailers and participating An Post offices across Ireland, while bigger prizes, including jackpots, must be claimed in person (by appointment only) at the lottery’s headquarters in Dublin. See the How to Claim page for more details.
During this time the National Lottery has encouraged players to follow the Government’s social distancing guidelines and keep their tickets safe until they are able to claim.
Irish Lottery Draws Continuing As Normal
The disruption caused by coronavirus has not as of yet had an impact on lottery draws in Ireland, so games are currently scheduled to proceed as normal. Lotto draws will continue to take place at 8:00pm every Wednesday and Saturday, while EuroMillions is drawn at around 8:00pm every Tuesday and Friday.
You can still purchase entries in stores, although advance play for EuroMillions has been restricted. In stores you can now only purchase entries for the next EuroMillions draw, so you cannot play weeks in advance, as is usually the case.
This step has been taken to try and help minimise any further disruption caused by coronavirus. Each of the other eight participating countries are in various states of lockdown and have taken similar measures. In the UK advance tickets have also been restricted and in Spain, where a state of emergency has been declared, all lottery ticket sales have been suspended. France is currently in lockdown but EuroMillions draws are still scheduled to take place as normal.
Written by Alister Burton, 20th April 2020
