A MAN who lost his job two months ago has won big on the Irish lottery - and he plans to surprise his family with cheques on Christmas day.
A 28-year-old Romanian man who came to Ireland to find work six years ago will have a Christmas he will never forget after scooping €100,000 on a National Lottery Christmas Countdown scratch card.
The lucky winner revealed he will wait until Christmas Day to share news of his amazing win with his family - by surprising them with a cheque each for €10,000.
The man, who lives in the Midlands in Ireland, lost his job two months ago and is now unemployed.
He purchased his winning scratch card in Mace in Monard, Co. Tipperary, according to the Nationalist.
The man was one of three scratch card winners through the doors of National Lottery headquarters yesterday who won €150,000 between them.
The €100,000 winner said he is especially happy because he can now help members of his family who are also living in Ireland.
He said he plans to put cheques for €10,000 into big gift boxes for each of his family, and place them under the Christmas tree.
“I cannot wait to see their faces when they open the boxes on Christmas morning and see what is inside. I am going to say nothing about this win until then.”
Meanwhile a National Lottery spokesperson said sales of the Christmas Millionaire Raffle ticket with a guaranteed top prize of a cool €1,000,000, are brisk.
The raffle which has a limited 500,000 tickets has just over 5,000 prizes. As well as the top prize of €1,000,000 there is one prize of €250,000, four prizes of €100,000 and ten prizes of €10,000.
Approximately 30 cent in every Euro spent on National Lottery games go back to Good Causes all over Ireland in the areas of health, sport, arts, culture and the environment.
