Bookie forks out £33k on Lotto win

Tommy French said his William Street shop paid out the huge winnings on Wednesday after a workers’ syndicate beat the odds.

Tommy explained that a Lurgan man in his 40s comes in twice a week to place a bet for the group of four workers in the syndicate.

“They always do the same numbers and they do it twice a week.

“The bet is basically picking four numbers from the first six that are drawn in the Irish Lotto. They did it on the Lotto Plus One,” he said.

“It is a very good bet. For a small stake there is the possibility of huge returns. It’s great value for money.

“They basically did it on a £4 accumulator. A £1 bet on six numbers is 8000-1 - which means a win of £8k for a £1 bet. On three numbers from six numbers in the Irish Lotto it is 650 to 1 which means a £1 bet nets £650.

“Basically this group won £33,306 on a £6 stake,” said Tommy.

The Lurgan bookie said he had paid out big money before and remembers a guy in Moira who owned a horse and he came in regularly to back it.

Tommy said the horse was running in the Gold Cup about 20 years ago. “I had to pay the guy £120k when his own horse won.”

Tommy is organising extra staff for tomorrow’s Grand National when thousands of people place a bet on the world famous race at Aintree.

“Now that the race starts closer to 5pm, it means there is not as much of a rush to place a bet when the race started at 3pm,” he said.

However the canny bookmaker was less than forthcoming when asked for a tip.