Less than two weeks after opening, McSorley’s Centra on the Mountrath Road in Portlaoise has sold a €1 million winning lotto ticket.
The ticket was sold for last Saturday’s Lotto Plus 1 draw and claimed the €1 million prize.
McSorley’s Centra was originally based on the Mountmellick Road in Portlaoise before it relocated to the site of the old Lewis Opel garage on the Mountrath Road.
It was due to open earlier this year but due to the Coronavirus restriction, it was delayed until July 1.
“As a retailer, the next best thing to winning the Lotto is to sell a winning ticket to one of your customers,” said owner Martin McSorley.
“Some retailers could wait years to sell a life-changing Lotto jackpot prize so to do it within a matter of days is very special for everybody involved in the shop.
“As a brand new local business, we don’t have regular customers at the moment so somebody came into our store last Saturday to probably suss us out for the first time. It’s just mad to think that they essentially left the store as a millionaire.
“We are truly delighted for them, whoever they are and I hope that they continue to keep shopping with us for many years to come,” he laughed.
Originally from Tubberycurry in Sligo, Martin McSorley explained that the opening of his store was fraught with difficulties due to the on-going public health emergency but said that all of the hard work which was endured has more than been made up for with his maiden Lotto win.
“The win really is vindication in our decision to open the store. We were originally due to open the doors last February and then Covid-19 hit and it threw our plans right out the window.
“Following a lot of difficult decisions and very hard work, we managed to pull together and get the store open on the 1st July. We now have 14 local people employed in the store and we hope that we become an integral part of the local community for many years to come,” he added.
A statement from the National Lottery said they have still to hear from the newest Laois millionaire.
“We have yet to hear from this lucky Laois winner so we’re asking all our Lotto players who bought a ticket for Saturday’s draw in McSorley’s Centre store to check their tickets very carefully.
“If you do happen to be this lucky winner, be sure to sign the back of the ticket and contact our prize claims team on 1800 666 222 or email claims@lottery.ie and we will make arrangements to get your prize.”
The winning numbers from Saturday night’s Lotto Plus 1 draw were: 04, 23, 32, 33, 38, 46 and the bonus number was 21.
The Laois Lotto player incredibly becomes the 13th Lotto millionaire of 2020. Overall this year, the National Lottery has made 18 brand new millionaires through the Lotto, EuroMillions and Daily Million games.
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