Everyone gets excited at the thought of earning a little extra money, but imagine if you won over £1 million! For a lucky few this is not just a pipe dream and became reality thanks to playing a single game of bingo.
Split between bingo halls and online games the five biggest bingo winners range from avid players to those playing their first ever game. The jackpot has been given away to a range of people up and down the country and there’s no reason why you can’t be next!
So, let’s take a look at some of the biggest bingo wins and find out how they spent their money.
Christine Bradfield
The fifth biggest bingo winner to date is Christine Bradfield who took home a whopping £1.1 million from The Castle Club in Tydfil. A regular player for over a decade she finally won the prize money on 27th January 2008.
Christine, said: “I feel totally overwhelmed and shocked. All together we only spent £16 for all the bingo tickets on the night so I couldn’t believe it when they told me.”
Unlike some other major winners, Christine decided to continue her life as normal and went back to work as a part-time garage worker after receiving the jackpot. She said she wouldn’t let the massive win change her and would continue playing for bingo jackpots like before. She also decided to give some of her jackpot winning to her sister-in-law Lorraine who had been her bingo partner for 11 years.
Soraya Lowell
Shortly after Christine’s win, Soraya Lowell was delighted to discover that she had won £1.2 million in February 2008 and had become the UK’s biggest in-house bingo winner ever.
Living in Scotland as a cleaner, Soraya decided to generously split her fortune with her bingo partner Agnes O’Neil, however, things went downhill from there. Agnes sadly passed away shortly after the win and Soraya filed for divorce and was left bankrupt by 2012.
Lisa Potter
In third place is another female winner who cashed in £1.3 million in Oxford during 2012. Lisa was bored of being ignored by her partner while he watched the Euro Championships, so decided to try a bit of online bingo. Of course she was amazed when she won the jackpot after only placing £5!
Lisa, said: “I couldn’t believe what had happened. I showed my children and they all began screaming and my partner was pretty happy too.”
After the win Lisa quickly booked a big holiday, bought a new car and purchased a new house. She has since been known as Lucky Lisa and it is easy to understand why.
Georgios M
Just missing out on the top stop is Georgios who won a massive jackpot of £5.1 million after playing online bingo. Known to be 36 at the time of his win, Georgios is a Greek man who has continued to remain anonymous since winning the game in 2009.
Little is known about the millionaire for this reason and no one knows exactly how he won or spent the jackpot.
John Orchard
In the number one spot is John Orchard who won an amazing jackpot of £5.9 million at the end of 2012. The oldest winner of the bunch, John was spending his days at the Job Centre helping others find work until he decided to wager just 30p at an online bingo site.
After this bet John became the world’s biggest online winner of all time and said: “I just couldn’t believe I’d won it. This will change my life completely. I was looking at working for another five years at the Jobcentre – but not any longer.”
Pleased to be able to retire early, John also bought a brand new house, a Jaguar XF, a massive family holiday and expensive Christmas presents for his friends and family.
Could You Be The Next Big Winner? Inspired by the biggest winners stories? Why not head over to Paddy Power games now to be in with the chance to win big! Will you be generous with your winners like our top five and spilt the money with a partner or do you plan on treating yourself to something special? We would love to hear how you get on and what you spend any profits on.