It has been revealed that the Portsmouth (PO) postcode is officially a lucky spot for major prize winners on the National Lottery over the last 5 years.
Since 2011, 78 new lottery winners sporting the PO postcode – which includes the Isle of Wight – have celebrated a win of more than £50,000. This places the area in the top 25% (equal 30th) of the 121 postcodes across the country and one of the South’s hottest spots for the most National Lottery major prize winners.
Alongside the average of more than 1 big winner per month, PO has also been lucky when it comes to creating millionaires, in just 5 years some 12 players in the area have become lottery millionaires.
Living proof of PO’s recent successes are Alan and Jane Slater from Newport who scooped not 1, but 2 major prizes of £149,089.30 on the EuroMillions. The pair who had 2 winning tickets for the same draw, 1 of which was discovered by chance by their pet Labrador Ruby, celebrated their extraordinary win in September last year and haven’t looked back.
Recently retired, Alan said:
“I cannot begin to describe how our life has changed since that win, it’s like a fairy tale that just keeps getting better. We’ve had all the work done on our home that we wanted, I’ve taken early retirement and so has Jane, and we now spend our days with our two dogs, walking all over the island and taking holiday cottages in various nooks and crannies of the mainland. Life was good before but wow, it’s now magic.
“Here’s hoping PO stays lucky so more people can enjoy this experience.”
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Since the launch of The National Lottery a stunning 36 millionaires have been created in the postcode – an average of 2 per year – while 387 top tier prizes of at least £50,000 have been banked.
Andy Carter, Senior Winners’ Advisor for The National Lottery, the man who pays out the big winners, said:
“The Portsmouth postcode area includes some beautiful scenery and vibrant towns and cities, like Portsmouth, Chichester and Bognor Regis, as well as the whole of the glorious Isle of Wight so in many ways residents are already lucky to live in this postcode. With a very lucrative five years under their Lottery winner belt, they now have another reason to celebrate.
“There are now a massive 4,250 National Lottery millionaires across the country and with more than 6 new millionaires made every week there is likely to be another local winner very soon.”
It isn’t just individuals winning big, the entire community benefits from the money raised by The National Lottery. In 2015, 34 grants worth £481,000 were distributed to National Lottery funded projects on Isle of Wight alone. The 2015 recipients join the 1,032 projects in Isle of Wight already benefitting from funding, enabling;
• Queensgate Foundation Primary to install outdoor play equipment in their school playground, including a trim trail and ground markings
• Ventnor Town Council to implement a timebank service, for people to provide training and services, including CV writing and running errands, for the whole community
Each National Lottery player helps to raise over £34million every week for Good Causes. This helps fund our athletes competing at Rio, the nation’s arts and heritage, and many thousands of projects in local communities across the UK.
