Australian Powerball Dispute as Winner Distances Himself from Syndicate

Members of an Australian Powerball syndicate are gearing up for a legal battle after one of their co-workers insisted that a ticket worth $16.6 million had not been bought on behalf of the group. According to newspaper The Age, former courier Gary Baron finally admitted over the weekend that he had won a stake in the $50 million jackpot for the draw on 16th October 2014.

It is reported that he had previously denied winning the prize to several members of the syndicate, having called in sick the day after the draw. He quit work the following Monday and reportedly said that he was suffering from a medical condition. Baron had been in charge of collecting money from his colleagues each week and entering the Powerball via an online Tatts Group account.

It has been revealed by an ASIC search that Baron set up an investment company within days of winning, before going on to buy a new home, spend $200,000 on a convertible BMW M4 and purchase property for his son. Baron also had champagne delivered to his house by Tatts Group shortly after winning, and it was delivered by the Toll Group logistics company which he worked for, which aroused suspicion among the syndicate members.

A statement was released last October from the three players who split the $50 million, including an anonymous response thought to be from Baron. The anonymous winner said: “I’m still in disbelief … I don’t need that amount of money, it’s too much for me! I’m going to share the prize money with my family. I’ll make sure it doesn’t change who I am, but I’ll definitely be able to live a better lifestyle, with a few more toys.”

Baron has now said that the winning ticket was bought separately to the syndicate and claims that his lawyer has evidence to show that he is entitled to all of the money. There were 16 members of the syndicate and Fairfax Media has reported that 14 of these are set to take Supreme Court action, with a writ likely to be lodged this week.

In court documents, it will reportedly be alleged that Baron reneged on a deal to share the winnings, which would have left each member of the syndicate more than $1 million richer. Apart from Baron, the only other member of the syndicate not involved in the imminent legal proceedings is one woman who also resigned from Toll Group and is now reportedly his girlfriend.

Irish Store Strikes it Lucky by Selling Second Winning Lotto Ticket

A supermarket in Ireland could lay claim to being the luckiest place in the country after selling a ticket worth €5.9 million for Saturday’s Irish Lotto draw. It is not the first time a lottery player has enjoyed success at the store, after a couple scooped €10 million in 2013 with a €4 Quick Pick Lotto ticket bought there. The store also sold a €1 million Christmas Millionaire Raffle ticket in 2014.

The Tesco in Mullingar, Co Westmeath already has a famous association as it is where Bobby Horan, father of One Direction singer Niall Horan, works as a butcher. The latest Lotto winner bought their €16 ticket on the day of the draw but has yet to come forward to claim their prize, leading store manager Joe Ryall to admit that there has been plenty of speculation about the identity of the lucky customer.

“We’d like to think that it was one of the local customers who play lotto here every week that won,” he told the Irish Mirror. “The rumour circulating around town is that it was a syndicate.”

Saturday’s result may persuade some lottery fans to make special detours to Mullingar to buy their tickets, but others prefer to enter online. A syndicate from Dublin did just that and were the last winners of the Irish Lotto jackpot before a run of eight rollovers prior to the weekend.

The group of four work colleagues wish to remain anonymous but have come to National Lottery offices to collect their £2 million prize, scooped on Wednesday 8th April, and were happy to recall the moment they realised they won. One member said: “We started buying our tickets online in January as it’s so handy.

“I was on holiday in April and didn’t realise we’d won until I got back. My first reaction when I checked the account was that it must be a mistake. I sent one of the others a screenshot of the ticket and called him and said, check your messages – you won’t believe this!”

Another €2 million jackpot will be on offer on Wednesday and players who fancy getting involved don’t have to find their way to Mullingar or even any other authorised retailer in Ireland. Tickets are available online so the chance is there for anyone who enters to snap up a life-changing sum of money and become the latest winner of the Irish Lotto.

Eurojackpot Reaches Record Amount and Keeps Rolling

Friday’s Eurojackpot draw featured the game’s highest-ever jackpot of €62 million, which then rolled over after no one managed to match all five main numbers and two Euro numbers. Players will now be eyeing up a potential €75 million windfall when Eurojackpot returns on Friday night.

Eurojackpot is a pan-European lottery, drawn on Friday nights in Helsinki, Finland and played in its host country as well as Germany, Spain, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, the Netherlands, Hungary and Czech Republic. The previous highest-ever Eurojackpot top prize was won on Friday 12th September 2014, when a Finnish player scooped €61.1 million.

Although there was no jackpot winner last Friday, there were still plenty of big money prizes distributed across the 16 participating European countries. The largest amount won on the night was €291,422, banked by the seven players who matched all five main balls and one of the Euro numbers. Other amounts ranged from €7.60 for matching two main balls and one Euro number to €59,998 in the Match 5 prize tier. Find a full prize breakdown at the Results section of Euro-jackpot.net.

If you would like to throw your hat into the ring for a chance to claim a whopping €75 million this Friday night, then you don’t even have to live in a country which plays the game. You can choose your five main numbers from 50 and two Euro numbers from 10 through an online lottery concierge service who will buy the ticket for you, send you a scan and guide you through the claims process if you win. Visit the Play Eurojackpot page of Euro-jackpot.net to find out how to play Eurojackpot from overseas.

Lottery Employee Accused of Hot Lotto Fraud Has Trial Delayed

A former lottery worker accused of tampering with a number generator to win $14.3 million has had his trial pushed back until July after prosecutors presented more than 500 pages of new material, along with videos and recordings. Eddie Raymond Tipton was arrested and charged with two counts of fraud in January after he was accused of purchasing a Hot Lotto ticket, which he was barred from doing by law as a lottery employee.

Tipton worked as the information security director of the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) when there was a mystery Hot Lotto winner appeared in Iowa in December 2010. The winning ticket was not claimed for almost a year and then, hours before the expiry date, a New York attorney named Crawford Shaw came forward on behalf of a corporation supposedly based in Belize. The ticket was valid, but Shaw was not paid because he refused to name who had bought the ticket, and he later withdrew the claim, saying that he didn’t know the identity of the winner.

The customer who is thought to have purchased the winning ticket in Des Moines can be seen wearing a dark hood in surveillance footage released last October, but following a tip-off police were able to analyse their voice and match a licence plate in the parking lot of the convenience store to Tipton. As Tipton couldn’t claim cash prizes, it has been alleged that he approached two men in Texas to ask for help in claiming the jackpot anonymously.

In court documents filed last week ahead of the trial, prosecutors have now accused Tipton of allegedly entering a locked room at the lottery association which contained the random number-generating computers. It is alleged that he went into the room on November 20, 2010, a month before the $14.3 million was won, and used software on a thumbdrive to infect the computers and control the winning numbers.

According to prosecutors, cameras on the day in question did not run continuously like they would normally and instead recorded only one second per minute. “Four of the five individuals who have access to control the camera’s settings will testify they did not change the cameras’ recording instructions,” prosecutors wrote in court documents reported by the Des Moines Register. “The fifth person is defendant. It is a reasonable deduction to infer that defendant tampered with the camera equipment to have an opportunity to insert a thumbdrive into the RNG tower without detection.”

Tipton has pleaded not guilty to all charges and his attorney has dismissed the computer tampering theory as not ‘factually viable’. Jury selection was set to begin on Monday, but Judge Jeffrey Farrell has now allowed Tipton’s defence more time to prepare, and the trial has been rescheduled to restart on Monday 13th July.

UK Player Wins £53.1 Million EuroMillions Jackpot

A UK player put an end to a run of six EuroMillions rollovers last night and scooped a massive £53.1 million (€73.5 million) in the process. The ticket holder matched all five main numbers of 8, 20, 24, 28 and 49 plus Lucky Stars 8 and 9 to become the country’s 48th EuroMillions jackpot winner.

The player is yet to come forward and may not even realise yet that they are the lucky owner of a life-changing sum of money, but they headed up another night full of cash awards for players across Europe. A single player matched five main numbers and one Lucky Star to bag €1.2 million and nine players, four of whom bought their tickets in the UK, matched five numbers to receive £36,534 (€47,324).

Other prizes distributed on the night ranged from £3.20 (€4.20) for matching two main numbers up to £3,574 (€4,629) for matching four main numbers and two Lucky Stars. You can find a full prize breakdown from last night’s draw, including the Millionaire Maker code which is worth £1 million to one UK player, at the Results page of Euro-Millions.com.

There are plenty more chances this week to join last night’s winner on Millionaires’ Row, with an estimated £2 million up for grabs in this evening’s Lotto draw and £10 million (€15 million) available when EuroMillions is drawn again in Paris on Friday.

You can buy lottery tickets for both games at authorised retailers or by clicking on the links to the right and purchasing them online. Good luck.

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