Mum’s the word for millionaire bingo fan

While Mother’s Day took place on March 10th in the UK, most countries – including the USA, where it was first celebrated – mark the occasion on the second Sunday in May.

That fell on May 12th in 2013, and just a few days before, on May 9th, global lottery The BiLLe Lotto held a special bonus draw in honour of mums all over the world.

It seems only fitting, then, that one Glasgow-based bingo fan found herself €1 million richer following the draw – and is not only a mother of three, but is also a midwife.

Cathleen McIntosh, general manager of The BiLLe Lotto, says: “It could hardly be more appropriate … Her job for 28 years has been quite literally to help women in becoming mothers, so it’s really amazing.”

The lucky winner of the €1 million lotto prize was Michelle Drayton-Harrold, a 51-year-old Glasgow resident who says the payout eclipses her bingo wins of the past.

“It’s a bit overwhelming, to be quite honest,” she said. “I’m completely… the word we have in Glasgow is ‘gobsmacked’. I’m lucky if I’ve ever won maybe €50 in a local bingo, or something like that.”

When her telephone rang, Ms Drayton-Harrold was expecting a call about her father’s health, as he has not been very well, but the caller was actually Ms McIntosh, telephoning from The BiLLe Lotto’s headquarters in Antigua to tell her of her win.

Ms Drayton-Harrold also has to go and collect her winnings in person – which means an all-expenses-paid, week-long stay in Antigua courtesy of the lottery’s operators.

BiLLe is similar to the UK National Lottery, in that it requires the player to match six balls out of a possible 49 numbers in total; however, it has a few important differences.

Firstly, you must also choose a seventh, bonus number, and a primary jackpot win is awarded only for matching all six main draw numbers in any order, along with the seventh bonus ball drawn; with each combination of numbers only ever sold once per draw, that makes for a possible 601,304,088 unique lines.

Tickets are priced at €7 each, although you can play a partial ticket starting from €1, and the current primary jackpot stands at an estimated €116 million – and will continue to grow either until it is won, or until it tops out at its eye-watering limit of €1 billion.