Lancashire NHS worker scoops million-pound online casino prize

The winner, who is from Blackpool, hit the jackpot on the on the Wolf Gold 1,000,000 scratch card game with PlayOJO, which bills itself as the fair online casino, only four days after the site first introduced scratch card games to its line-up.

The winner, who has chosen to remain anonymous, is an NHS carer in her mid-twenties. She smashed the odds of winning the jackpot (one in 10 million chance) by cashing out with the game’s star prize with only a £20 spend.

She landed the major prize earlier this month and became the first millionaire of 2020 with PlayOJO UK. The previous largest single win on PlayOJO this year was in April, when a player landed a prize in excess of £420,000.

Peter Bennett, head of brand for PlayOJO, said: “We are delighted to announce our first PlayOJO millionaire of 2020. We are thrilled to have an NHS worker as our first millionaire winner of 2020. We have sent our congratulations to the player and hope that she enjoys her winnings.”

The Blackpool woman is not the only winner of million-pound scratchacard prizes in the county.

In February 2016, Blackpool couple Andrew and Natalie Cunliffe scooped a million on a National Lettery scratchcard they had bought at supermarket in Hindley, Wigan. The cash meant that they could have their dream wedding in Cyprus.

Meanwhile, a Preston chef won £1m with an online National Lottery scratchcard in December last year – but he still turned in for work on Christmas Day.

Father-of-one Didzis Pirags, aged 36, was on his lunch break at the pub when he felt lucky and logged on to his online National Lottery account via his app and discovered he had a balance of £6.50 and decided to spend £5.

And the impromptu game proved very, very lucky.

Latvian-born Didzis, who is chef and kitchen manager at The Phantom Winger in Garstang Road, Broughton, near Preston, discovered he was £1m richer last Saturday.

But despite his windfall he still turned in to do a lengthy shift on Christmas Day – and Boxing Day too!