Lotto bosses say 1.5m of us are sitting on multi-millions in unspent winnings

Lottery operator Allwyn is urging players to check their accounts after confirming 1,542,081 people haven’t cashed out – but don’t buy a jet as the average win just sat there is £3.90

The National Lottery has revealed 1.5million players are sitting on multi-millions in unspent winnings in their online accounts.

Lottery operator Allwyn is urging players to check their accounts after confirming 1,542,081 people haven’t cashed out – or used their funds to purchase further tickets.

The average win just sat there is £3.90 – although some accounts have multiple unclaimed wins, with more than 195,000 players having prizes of £10 or more just waiting to be spent.

Individual wins range all the way up to £500, the maximum amount paid directly into an online account.

Andy Carter, senior winners’ advisor at Allwyn, said: “Come on, you’ve played a game, become a winner and yet not enjoyed your win.

“It’s time to log on and check – it could be you. I love making winners and it always amazes me that some players seem happy to wait to enjoy their win.

“Whether it’s a few pounds or something much larger, it’s money that could be spent on a treat, saved for something special or even used to play again.

“With Lotto making double the number of millionaires this win in your account could turn into a chance to win a million in just a couple of clicks.”

Of the 1.5 million players yet to withdraw their winnings, 130,375 live in Scotland, 74,444 in Wales and 27,767 in Northern Ireland. Across England there are 200,553 in London, 192,680 in the South East, 134,229 in Bristol and the rest of the South West and 186,683 in the East of England.

There are hundreds of thousands of prizes yet to be spent in the north, including 180,672 in the North West, 128,824 in Yorkshire and 66,662 in the North East.

In Birmingham and the rest of the West Midlands there are 121,141 and in Nottingham and the East Midlands there are 95,474.

One player who knows how it feels to turn small change into something big is Paul Wynne, a dad-of-eight from north Wales, who won £1million on Lotto.

Paul said: “One of the lines are dates associated with my five younger children, and that’s the line that made me a millionaire.

“It took a while to work out what was going on, to compute it.

“I thought I had won £1,700 at first which I was overjoyed about but then I realised I had five main numbers and the Bonus Ball, so it was £1m.”

Since National Lottery funding began in 1994, more than £53 billion has been raised for good causes, supporting over 680,000 projects across the UK – around £33 million every week.