A UK couple who have won £1m (US$1.5 million) in the EuroMillions lottery for the second time have said they "just can't believe it".
David and Kathleen Long from Scunthorpe, who won their first £1m in 2013, scooped a big money prize again on Friday night, beating odds of more than 283bn to one.
Long said he "just knew it would be my turn again some day" as the couple become the first people to win £1m twice who have gone public.
A spokesman for Camelot, which runs the UK national lottery, said, "This is an extraordinary situation where somebody's been fortunate enough to win twice. As you can imagine, we see winners who win once who are very, very shocked. It must be even more shocking to win twice."
The couple also scooped a top-of-the-range Jaguar.
Long said, "I always knew I'd win, even the first time. I just had a feeling it was going to be me. I tend to play when I know there are lots of prizes on the go.
"Last time I knew I had a good chance because there were 100 prizes of £1m. Last Friday night I was passing the local shop and saw there were 10 £1m prizes on EuroMillions and a nice car and thought yeah, I'll give that a go. Got to be worth a few lines and I got five using my usual numbers.
"On Saturday morning I sat down in front of our telly and started checking the numbers. On one line I'd matched two numbers and one star to get 7.20 and thought that's alright.
"Then I checked the raffle codes, something I've learned to do automatically since winning last time. After a few moments I very calmly called Kath in and said: 'Have a look at this. It's there. Look. Read that line'."
Long said his wife checked the television and went online. "Then she went up right close to our television on the wall, put on her glasses and stared really hard at the raffle numbers. It seemed ages and then she finally said: 'You said you'd do it again and you have!' Everything has been a blur ever since. It's definitely taking longer to sink in this time."
Meanwhile, a UK ticketholder won Tuesday's £53m EuroMillions jackpot, but has yet to claim the prize.
It is the 10th biggest EuroMillions jackpot to be won in the UK.
Congrats to the lucky Long family!
Congrats to David and Kathleen Long on both of their wins!
Holy merde.
I could realy use some luck like that right about now...
Congrats to the Long family
Great story though. Thanks Guardian and Lottery Post Staff !
See lightning does strike twice on the same spot :D!!! Congrats!!!
North Lincolnshire UK always wins LOL
Congrats!
Am not surprise they won again and they should not be. Winning the first time is the difficult part because you play little . winning the second time is easy because you are spending $1000 more a month than you use to. Just like riding a bicycle you start from gear one hard but gear two or three or four get easier but don't let illusion of success fool you the high up you go the easier to fall of the high wall so be happy for now.
Congratulations David & Kathleen....
The reaction of many Guardian readers is unbelievable, and they call themselves progressives?
Read the comments after the article on the Guardian's website. It is sad that people can not just be happy for the lucky couple.
You see!!!
This is absolute proof that it's WAY TOO EASY for winners! These people could take a trip to America and win 10 consecutive Powerball jackpots with the greatest of ease, even if they bought their tickets in North Dakota.
If I play and win Lucky for Life tonight I will get $5.7M which after taxes ends up being around $3M which is what this lucky couple have won. I will go for it.
im pretty sure they have the maths wrong, this is the prize for the bonus raffle draw, and thats 10 chances in how ever many people bought tickets in that draw. not the base odds of winning euro millions.
Top UK jackpot winners