New Westmeath mother spins Winning Streak Wheel and wins €40,000
A Westmeath woman who recently became a mother for the first time spun the iconic Winning Streak wheel, winning a total of €40,000 as Ireland’s longest running television game show returned to RTÉ One television on Saturday (September 28) for the landmark 30th season of the popular National Lottery game show.
Michelle Connolly from Kilbeggan has just returned to work after nine months out on maternity leave, having given birth to her daughter Reagan.
Getting the call to say she was going on Winning Streak was just the latest event in a special year for Michelle and her husband, Rory.
Married for three years, the couple are loving life as new parents.
Despite being that extra bit busy with Reagan, the couple remain active and often take Reagan with them walking and hiking.
By day Michelle is a financial officer in Family Carers Ireland head office in Tullamore, where she has worked for three years.
Michelle was cheered on by family and friends in RTÉ at the weekend, including her parents, Ger and Mick, and her sister Laura. Michelle says she will put her winnings towards a mortgage and she also hopes to go on a holiday.
The National Lottery game show is co-presented by Marty Whelan and Sinéad Kennedy and features some perennial favorite games including Play or Pay, Roll for Riches, WinFall and Electric Dream – where one player will win an electric car worth €25,000.
As ever one of the lucky five players will get the chance to spin the wheel and win up to €500,000.
An exciting element of the show is that one €100,000 segment will be added to the Grand Prize Wheel every show if less than that amount was won in the previous show, improving players’ chances to win a massive prize.
A brand new-look Winning Streak scratch card is available from the 5,900 National Lottery retailers across the country.
In addition to the chance to appear on the Winning Streak TV game show if you get three stars, players will also be in with a chance to win some great cash prizes up to €5,000.
The odds for those who purchase a Winning Streak to win is 1 in 1.86 to win a cash or three star prize.
All players who purchase a scratch card can send their stubs into the National Lottery using grey envelopes, available in all National Lottery agents, where each week on the show, a player will be drawn as the winner of a Luxury Cruise for two valued at €5,000.
The winner of this week’s cruise is Michael Sheehan from Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.
Nearly 30 cent in every €1 spent on Winning Streak and all National Lottery games goes back to Good Causes in the areas of sport, youth, health, welfare, education, arts, heritage and the Irish Language. In total more than €5.4 Billion has been raised for Good Causes since the National Lottery was established 32 years ago.
In 2018 alone, more than €228 million was raised; the equivalent of almost €625,000 a day in support for local Good Causes in communities across Ireland.