Two winners share record $146M UK lottery

  • 10/01/2016
A member of the public walks past a sign for the National Lottery in London (AAP)
A member of the public walks past a sign for the National Lottery in London (AAP)

Britain's biggest-ever national lottery win has been shared by two players, after huge numbers of tickets were sold for the £66 million (NZ$146.48 million) tax-free jackpot.

The Saturday night UK national lottery draw attracted many more players than normal, and came the same day as Americans flocked to get tickets for a record jackpot of more than US$900 million (NZ$1.38 billion) in the United States' Powerball draw.

The previous biggest British national lottery jackpot was £22.6 million more than 20 years ago.

British winners of the pan-European Euromillions lottery draw have received far more in recent years.

The biggest win came in 2011 when a Scottish couple collected £161 million.

Britain launched its national lottery in 1994.

The twice-weekly game is run by Camelot, a company now owned by the teacher's pension fund for the Canadian province of Ontario, and raises over £34 million for charity each week.

Reuters