For lottery winners, the moment they realise they’ve won, their lives are never the same.
The winner of the biggest-ever EuroMillons jackpot in the UK – a cool £195 million – decided to remain anonymous after netting the prize in 2022, so we can’t ask them what it felt like.
The runners-up, Joe and Jess Thwaite, said their £184 million prize gave them ‘time to dream’ and support all their family and friends.
While they maintain the record for the biggest UK win, another huge jackpot was won in Europe last night, with results seeing one lucky ticket-holder scoop a massive £216 million jackpot.
The French winner claimed the maximum 250million Euros jackpot with the numbers 24, 31, 34, 41 and 43, while the lucky stars were 06 and 08.
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It comes after an Irish family syndicate claimed another 250 million euros sum on June 17.
But what happens after that jaw-dropping moment when, hands shaking as you double and triple check the number on your ticket, you realise that you’re not dreaming and you have actually won?
Andy Carter, a Senior Winner’s Advisor at Camelot, has spent the last 13 years helping people who have become millionaires overnight to come to terms with their new reality.
He spoke to Metro.co.uk about what really happens after someone realises they’ve won the lottery.
If you find yourself in the almost impossible-to-imagine situation of having a winning lottery ticket, the first thing to do (once you’ve finished screaming into a pillow or jumping up and down) is to turn the ticket over and find the phone number to ring.
Andy explained: ‘If you were to win the EuroMillions tomorrow night, you would check the ticket, ring the number on the back of the ticket and that would put you through to a lottery line. They would then get a member of my team to call you back.’
This first phone call to the National Lottery call centre is important, because it sets in motion the crucial steps that all lottery winners must follow to claim their prize.
From the moment you realise you’ve won to actually getting the money, winners are looked after every step of the way by a dedicated team of National Lottery ‘Winner’s Advisors’ like Andy.
It is their job to support winners through the entire process so they can begin to enjoy their life-changing win.
Andy, or one of his advisor team members, will call lottery winners back as quickly as possible once they receive news that a EuroMillions prize has been claimed.
After the initial phone call with the winners’ advisor team, Andy or one of his colleagues will visit the winner, in person.
Ideally, you’ll get a visit the next day, or failing that as soon as the winner can allow.
During the home visit by the Winners Advisory team, a number of checks will be carried out to verify the winner.
‘Within half an hour I can tell if someone has won the money,’ Andy revealed.
As well as checking the winning ticket is legit, Andy and his team are there to answer any questions that the winners may have and, as you can imagine for someone who has just become a (sometimes multi) millionaire, they have more than a few.
‘Sometimes we get to people’s houses and we don’t even open the computer for an hour because we just sit there and answer people’s questions,’ Andy said. ‘This could sometimes last all day.’
As soon as the winning ticket is verified and the ID of the winner confirmed, the Lottery can pay the winner their money on that very day.
However, once the money is paid into an elected bank account, it takes two days for the money to process before it can be withdrawn.
This means that the longest you have to wait before getting the money is around three days between discovering you’ve won the lottery and actually being able to spend the cash.
Winners have no choice but to have their winning sum deposited in one, single bank account by the Lottery – so there’s no stuffing it under your bedroom mattress or locking it in your personal safe.
The winner can choose the bank they would like to hold the money with, but a brand new account with that bank is set up – usually with a private arm of that bank who specialise with dealing with large sums of money of this kind.
This bank account can be open for as long as the winner needs it to be, or they can move the money to other accounts once it has cleared after a couple of days.
‘All winners are anonymous,’ Andy confirmed, ‘This is the default position for all lottery winners.’
Andy also impresses that any publicity surrounding a winner is a personal choice and there is no set media schedule – every winner is different.
‘It’s entirely the winner’s decision if they want to share news of their win. We have an aftercare programme in place to ensure that all winners have access to legal and financial advice.
‘Sometimes we go to a winner’s home and we’ve already had media enquiries before we even get there because the winner wants to celebrate their win and mark it publicly,’ Andy explained.
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‘Often the rule of thumb tends to be the higher the amount of money the more likely the winner will be to take publicity.’
However, if a winner does choose to keep their newfound wealth a secret, then Andy and his team are the only ones to know about the win.
He says: ‘It’s often the case that when a winner decides to remain anonymous, we are the only people that know about their win so we keep in touch with them for as long as they want to. Often they like to talk to someone or just let us know what they have been up to.’
When it comes to the decision to keep a lottery win a secret or tell the whole world, you’d think that either way, one of the people to definitely be in the loop would be the winner’s partner or spouse.
But, should you want to keep your newfound wealth entirely to yourself, the National Lottery certainly isn’t going to tell you otherwise.
‘A National Lottery win belongs to the signatories of the relevant validation paperwork. How a winner(s) chooses to share (or not) winnings is their personal decision,’ Elanor Corbett, PR Executive at The National Lottery confirmed to Metro.co.uk.
‘There is no tax on the win itself, but if the win produces an income through interest, then that will be taxed as part of your normal income tax,’ Andy explained.
‘The only way the EuroMillions jackpot would go to National Lottery Good Causes is if the jackpot is won in a draw but, for whatever reason, the ticket-holder does not then subsequently come forward to claim,’ Elanor told us.
‘Unclaimed prizes have a maximum of 180 days to be claimed from the date of the winning draw. After that, the money plus the interest it has generated whilst it is held in trust, is passed over to National Lottery Good Causes.
‘Each week, The National Lottery raises around £30M for Good Causes because every time a National Lottery ticket is bought a proportion of the ticket sale automatically goes to National Lottery Good Causes.’
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While every EuroMillions winner is different, all lottery winners who receive over £50,000 are visited by a Winner’s Advisor after they call to claim their prize.
For those who are lucky enough to win around £1 million or more, two or three weeks after they receive their money, the Lottery set up a meeting between the winner and a financial and legal advisor.
During this follow-up meeting, big money winners are given free legal and financial advice on how best to manage their money in order to achieve what they want with it.
Andy’s top piece of advice to any winners he deals with? Take your time.
‘You have to remember that plans will change over time, which is why we urge people not to do anything too quickly because your attitude will change over time as you become more comfortable with the wealth,’ Andy said.
However, despite the free advice offered to winners from the advisory team and the legal and financial professionals, Andy makes it clear that once the money arrives in a winner’s bank account: ‘It’s up to them what they do with it from then on.’
‘It’s their money so we are careful not to tell them what to do with it.’
In the past, people who have gone public with their incredible National Lottery wins have chosen to spend their cash on new houses, cars, holidays and on their family and friends.
There have been stories of winners, such as one of the UK’s youngest Euromillions winners Callie Rogers, who ‘lost’ most of her money with quick spending – but Andy insists that this is a rarity:
‘The people who spend the money too quickly are a very, very small percentage.’
‘The vast majority of winners are very conservative – they have been blessed with a huge amount of money and they want to protect it.’
This article was first published on December 7, 2024.
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