A British couple have won £1million in the EuroMillions lottery for the second time in 20 months – beating odds of more than 283 billion to one. Millionaires David and Kathleen Long from Scunthorpe pictured left when they won it the first in 2013 and right in 2015
The former lorry driver said today he was ‘shocked’ to win again but continued buying a ticket after their first million-pound win because ‘I just knew it would be my turn again some day’.
The couple, who married last year after a 12-year engagement, announced their win at their local pub in Scunthorpe where they put on a free bar for all their family and friends today.
Last time the HGV driver and his now-wife won despite throwing their ticket in the bin in 2013. He then ‘had the urge to fish it out’ and was shocked to discover it was worth £1million.
Mr Long said today: ‘I tend to play when I know there are lots of prizes on the go.
‘Last time I knew I had a good chance because there were 100 prizes of £1 million. Last Friday night I was passing the local shop and saw there were 10 £1 million prizes on EuroMillions and a nice car and thought yeah I’ll give that a go.
‘Got to be worth a few lines and I got five using my usual numbers.
“On Saturday morning I sat down in front of our telly and started checking the numbers. On one line I’d matched two numbers and one star to get £7.20 and thought that’s all right.
‘Then I checked the raffle code s- something I’ve learnt to do automatically since winning last time. After a few moments I very calmly called Kath in and said ‘Have a look at this. It’s there. Look. Read that line’
Mr Long said his wife checked the television and went online, adding: ‘Then she went up right close to our television on the wall, put on her glasses and stared really hard at the raffle numbers. It seemed ages and then she finally said: ‘You said you’d do it again and you have!’ Everything has been a blur ever since.
It’s definitely taking longer to sink in this time!’
Bookies told MailOnline today they could not find any bets on the planet that could match the 283 billion to one odds of a double lottery win.
But one said an example of a million to one gamble would be for future king Prince George winning Wimbledon while also captaining the England rugby and cricket teams.
A Camelot spokesman said: ‘This is an extraordinary situation where somebody’s been fortunate enough to win twice. As you can imagine, we see winners who win once who are very, very shocked. It must be even more shocking to win twice.’
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Yeah, that is really amazing. I’ve been playing UK National lottery Euro Millions still it was once I won a little over 80 pounds. I wish I were as lucky the Longs just once in my life!
I feel I’ll be lucky tomorrow they will raffle 33 millions. I’m gonna pick 5, 27, 69, 2, 21 + 3 & 6