by Renee Israel
According to statistics released by the National Lottery,
when it comes to lottery winners in the United Kingdom Lady Luck favours players
called John and Margaret more than any other, so get yourself down to the deeds
office today and change your name.
In terms of UK lottery winners that have won over £50,000, John, David,
Michael, Peter, Robert, James, Paul, William and Stephen are lucky for men,
while Margaret, Susan, Patricia, Mary, Christine, Elizabeth, Jean, Janet, Linda
and Karen are lucky names for women.
The National Lottery released the interesting stats ahead of last week's
whopping £16,523,920 draw, the UK's fifth largest lottery jackpot (from a triple
rollover) in its 15-year history. As such, tens of thousands of lottery fans
visited Lotto outlets before the big draw.
And when all was said and done, four lucky Lotto winners matched the six winning
numbers, netting themselves each £4,130,980. It is unknown if any of them are
called John or Margaret, but what is known is that each of the lucky four are
smiling all the way to the bank.
The National Lottery's first Triple Rollover was won on May 29, 2004 by a
syndicate of six players who each banked an impressive £3,693,086, while the
second was on October 14, 2006 when a couple from Bilston and a syndicate of 14
postal workers split £18,711,206.
In November 2007 a syndicate comprising 16 administrative staff members of the
University of Plymouth each won £8,829,737, and in January 2008 Steve Smith from
Hemel Hempstead made news headlines when he had the sole winning ticket for a
£18,992,109 jackpot.
However, Iris Jeffery from Belfast, Ireland is still Britain's biggest single
Lotto jackpot winner when she matched the winning six Lotto numbers in a draw in
July 2004 to walk away £20,100,472 richer. So far the National Lottery has
raised over £24 billion for Good Causes.
