August 2002

PRIZE DAY FOR FIRST ONLINE LOTTERY MILLIONAIRE
By Alexandra Thompson, Press Association

The first person in Europe to win £1 million in an online lottery received his prize today. Ian White, 58, winner of the www.TheDailyDraw.com lottery, was surprised with a cheque for £1 million at his home in Grays, Essex, by the site's organisers.
Mr White, who retired due to ill health, and who has been playing the online lottery game for 12 months, said: "I'm shocked. I'd always had an inkling I would win a lot of money and here it is. "I'll need to start practising my royal wave."
Mr White said he intended to spend the night on the sofa letting the news sink in but that he was thinking about spending his winnings on living between
England and Spain, and getting better treatment for his osteoporosis overseas.
Players on the www.TheDailyDraw.com site can try their luck for free twice a day. Players pick six numbers of choice. If they match three numbers they win a small prize, such as two for one tickets to the cinema; for four numbers they win £10; for five numbers they win £1,000 and for six numbers they win £1 million.
Some 750,000 people have played 18 million games on the site, which is owned by direct marketing company PDV online, since it was opened in 2001. And prizes worth half a million pounds have been given away.
Wanda Goldwag, chair of PDV, said: "We are delighted to be creating Europe's first real dot com millionaire. "There are many sceptics in the world who don't believe that online lotteries are real, but we can really deliver on our promises and are looking forward to creating our next millionaire."