EuroMillions: Teen misses £182m win due to glitch

A teenager was “absolutely heartbroken” after missing out on a £182million EuroMillions jackpot when her ticket payment didn’t go through.

Rachel Kennedy, then 19, couldn’t believe her eyes when she double-checked her numbers on the app after the drawing on February 26 last year and saw a notification that said, “Winning Match.”

She called her mum and boyfriend Liam McCrohan, 21, into the room and the trio envisioned how their lives would be transformed.

But her hopes and dreams were quickly dashed when a call to lottery bosses Camelot revealed the ticket wasn’t automatically pre-purchased as she only had £2.50 in her account.

She told The Sun: “I called the number thinking I’d won £182million and they said: ‘Yes you have the right numbers but you didn’t have the money in your account to pay for the ticket, so it was like “didn’t really go through”.

“I was on top of the world when I thought I had won, but when I found out I hadn’t Liam was actually more upset than me.”

The teenager, who was then studying business at Brighton University, had played the same numbers – 6, 12, 22, 29, 33, 6 and 11 – for five weeks straight before they actually came in.

This week, Camelot, which has operated the state-licensed lottery since 1994, sent the couple a “good luck” message for future draws.

A spokesman said: “We know Rachel’s story and we hope she arrives early to buy a ticket for the next big draw.”

EuroMillions players have been urged to check their tickets after a UK player matched all five numbers and two lucky stars in the £54,957,242 draw on Friday 10th June.

Camelot said that at this point it can only show that the winner bought their ticket in a retail store and not online.

There will be no information as to whether the ticker holder is an individual or a syndicate unless the winner decides to go public. Players have 180 days from the drawing date to claim their prize if they have the winning ticket.

Last month, Gloucester couple Joe and Jess Thwaite became Britain’s biggest EuroMillions winners of all time when they won the draw on Tuesday 10th June.

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