The National Lottery in the UK has created over 800,000,000 winners (yes that's 800 million) since it first started back in November 1994. Every week, an estimated 750,000 ticket holders win prizes in the UK lottery, yet it's always the big winner who attract the most attention.

UK Lottery Biggest Individual Win
The largest individual ticket win on the UK lottery was back in June 1995, when Paul Maddison and Mark Gardiner from Brighton shared '22,590,829. The winner's right to anonymity if they wish it, was instated after the identity of a single '17.44 million winner was leaked to the press in December 1994. The shy ticket holder, an Asian factory worker from Blackburn, was easily tracked down by the media.

UK National Lottery Biggest Jackpot Win
The largest UK National Lottery jackpot was '42,008,610, shared by three ticket holders back in January 1996. The largest European individual winner was on the Irish lottery, where a Limerick woman won '77million, whilst in Spain an entire town won a life-changing US$263 on the El Gordo lottery.

The Biggest Lottery Win in the World
Yet all these lottery wins pale into insignificance beside the largest win of all, $365 million, ('210 million) won by a lucky Powerball ticket holder in the US state of Nebraska. Alain Maboussou, an immigrant from the Republic of Congo working at a meatpacking plant, caused a massive stir by not claiming his money straight away. Needless to say, he quit his job after winning!

The National Lottery: Unclaimed prizes and sports!
It may seem incredible, but some lucky winners of big money prizes on the National Lottery never actually claim their cash!

Claim that UK lottery money!
The UK lottery web site reveals that between March and July 2006, an astounding '5,313,852.50 of prize money was unclaimed. What's more, unless the ticket owners get their skates on, by January 2007 they will have relinquished their claims, and all that prize money they won in the UK National Lottery will have passed on to the lottery's Good Causes.

Recent National Lottery unclaimed prizes
The unclaimed cash include two cool '250,000 prizes, one for a EuroMillions draw (who said we never get anything out of Europe?) and one for a Thunderball draw. Perhaps the most amazing unclaimed amounts are the TWO jackpot wins of '1,666,667 for the same date, Saturday 29 April 2006. What tremendous event could have caused two lucky winners to not check their tickets, one in Warwickshire and one in Glasgow? Why, footballer Wayne Rooney breaking his metatarsal bone just six weeks before the opening match of the World Cup of course!

The biggest National Lottery unclaimed prize?
Back in August 2006, the Doncaster Town Crier was employed to try and jog the memory of one winner, whose enormous '9,476,995 jackpot from a Wednesday draw was still languishing in the uk lottery bank account a month later. Again, the winning date is significant, as it was the day that London won the right to stage to 2012 Olympics. Perhaps the winner was another forgetful sports fan!