HAVING paid out to its 5,000th millionaire prizewinner, the National Lottery has created limited edition gold play stations for shops that have sold tickets worth more than £1m.
One of the first retailers to receive a celebratory stand was Mounir Sabti, owner of the News Stand in Saltcoats.
Mounir was presented with his station by three woman from the St Matthew’s Syndicate who bought their £1m ticket at the store in 2015.
Mounir said: “I can’t believe that there are now 5,000 lottery millionaires across the UK – we’re all extremely proud to say that one of those winning tickets came from our shop.
“Here’s hoping this gold play station will bring us even more luck.”
The syndicate of 18 school cleaners each got a share amounting to over £55,555 from their winning ticket.
The group had been playing the same numbers every week – but mixed things up by buying their tickets from a different shop each time.
Another Scottish winner, John Edmond who won £1m in 2015, was invited by Camelot to take part in the official celebrations for passing the 5,000 milestone.
He decided to mark it by opening a bottle of champagne at the summit of Ben Nevis.
Muhannad Rashid of Quix Store in Heywood, Greater Manchester who sold a £6.7m EuroMillions winning ticket in 2006 was another early recipient of a golden stand.
He said: “I’m delighted to have a gold play station and to be a lucky store. It’s fantastic to be able to sell National Lottery tickets and help so many good causes at the same time – as well as creating lots of lucky winners.”
The 5,000 have shared a total of £13.3bn and 54% say they won with lucky dip tickets.
