Two Lucky Winners Share 18.4 Million Euros in Greek Joker Jack Pot

Today is the first day of their new life for two lucky Greeks from Pella, Macedonia, and Corinth, Peloponnese, as they predicted with accuracy the numbers of yesterday’s Joker draw and will share a total of 18.4 million euros. According to stats from the Organization of Football Prognostics (OPAP), almost five million Greeks challenged their luck after 15 consecutive jack pots since September 11 and the total amount placed in bets was almost 40 million euros. The lucky numbers that instantly changed the two winners’ lives and made them richer by 9.2 million euros were: 9, 14, 20, 24, 30 and the Joker number drawn was 16.

This is the second largest Joker amount ever given out in Greece, after the 19.2 million euro jack pot that three lucky people split in April 2010. In 2006, three winners split 14 million euros, while in January 2009, one person won an 11-million-euro jack pot, the largest sum awarded to a single player.

The two players paid 10 and 11 euros and according to the bet shop owners in Pella and Corinth, they did not even pick the lucky numbers on their own, as they used the “random choice.” Until now, the two super winners remain unnamed and probably their identity will remain secret for security reasons.

According to ex-Paralympics athlete and owner of the betting store in the village of Galatades in Pella, Anastasios Tsiou, “the entire village can live with the money,” while every one of the 2,500-souls village is waiting for the winner’s appearance. “My blood is frozen,” Tsiou posted on his Facebook wall, minutes after the lucky numbers’ announcement and the revelation that his store was amongst the two that the numbers were chosen from. Konstantinos Babedakis, owner of the second bet store in Corinth, said that if he was the winner of the 9.2 million euros he would have gone crazy. As they both say, though, it is more likely to meet the representatives of the two winners rather than themselves, as it usually happens in such cases.