Borders is luckiest part of UK for Lotto wins of £50,000-plus, figures reveal

Members of a National Lottery syndicate at Kelso firm Icom-Scottech go to share a £1m win 19 ways.

Statistics released by organiser Camelot to mark the 25th anniversary of the lottery’s launch show that the Borders has been the luckiest part of the UK for top-tier prize wins over that quarter of a century.

Since the lottery’s launch in November 1994, 105 prizes of £50,000 or more – including 10 of £1m-plus – have been banked by gamblers in the TD postcode area, covering all of the Borders and part of north Northumberland.

Those 10 National Lottery millionaires are among 5,500 across the UK, 526 of them in Scotland, created by the draw.

Hawick couple David and Carol Martin celebrating their £33m Lotto win in January 2016.

Some £71bn in prize money has been paid out in the history of the lottery, and £40bn has been raised for good causes.

Among the Borders’ lottery millionaires are David and Carol Martin, of Hawick.

The couple won a £33,035,323 Lotto jackpot prize in January 2016.

More recently, in July this year, 19 colleagues at Kelso electronics firm Icom-Scottech, playing as a syndicate, won £1m between them, each taking home £52,600.

Andy Carter, a senior winners’ adviser for Camelot, said: “It certainly does pay to live in the Borders, with so many top-tier prizes of over £50,000 being won by local residents.

“It’s incredible to see from our statistics that the TD postcode is actually the luckiest in the entire UK for winners of £50,000 or more per head of population.

“Over the last 25 years, the National Lottery has been making amazing things happen.

“Thanks to our players, 565,000 good cause grants have been given out to projects big and small. That’s the equivalent of 200 life-changing projects in every UK postcode district, making a huge impact on communities all over the country.

“On top of that, we have celebrated so many lucky winners who have won life-changing sums of money.

“Here’s to another 25 years of making dreams come true.”

The TD or Galashiels postcode area covers 12 districts in the Borders based around the postal towns of Cockburnspath, Coldstream, Duns, Earlston, Eyemouth, Galashiels, Gordon, Hawick, Jedburgh, Kelso, Lauder, Melrose, Newcastleton and Selkirk.

It also covers Berwick, Cornhill and Mindrum in Northumberland.