A DAD-of-four was told to dial 999 by his neighbours after he called them to celebrate his £100,000 lottery win.
Dan Carter, 39, was struggling to sleep following a boozy night out when he decided to play the £2.50 Monopoly Gold Instant Win Game on his phone’s Lotto app.
After suddenly winning the £100,000 jackpot he instantly woke wife Kayleigh, 38, so they could kick-start the party.
The couple called their friends down the road and the group toasted their success in the early hours of the morning in their pyjamas.
Despite being a bar manager, Dan admitted he was “shaking” so much with excitement he couldn’t pour the drinks following their August 30 win.
He said: “I don’t play The National Lottery all that often, I have won the odd thirty quid here and there.
“I decided to put £5 on my account and play EuroMillions, and when I didn’t win anything there I thought I’d try one of the Instant Win Games with the remaining £2.50.
“I played Monopoly Gold and won £5 and just left it there. Over the next couple of days I had a go here and there.
“I had been around my neighbours with the family, and after having a few drinks and playing some games, my wife and the kids went back home.
“I couldn’t sleep so had another go on my phone while sitting in bed and then noticed the message on the screen.
“I kept looking and looking and then I started screaming ‘I have won!’ My wife Kayleigh then started screaming too, we just couldn’t believe it.”
Dan said he was so stunned by his big win, at first his friends thought he needed an ambulance.
He said: “I couldn’t speak properly and our neighbours didn’t understand what was going on.
“At one point they said, ‘just call an ambulance if you aren’t well?’. Kayleigh finally grabbed the phone and explained what had happened.
“We met up and sat in the garden sipping a bottle of prosecco.
“Considering I’m a barman, I still struggled to pour without spilling, I was shaking that much.”
The couple, who have three daughters and one son, are planning to splash out on a family holiday to Disneyland Paris.
They also want to use some of the cash as a deposit to get themselves on the housing ladder after years of renting.
Dan said: “We’ve never had that much money, pretty much going week-by-week, but this is a game-changer.
“To be able to put a deposit down on a house is just amazing.
“I haven’t played The National Lottery very much but always thought that I would win when I did play.
“Winning just feels brilliant and it means I have some financial security for my family.”
Two years ago, the £2.50 Monopoly Gold game was axed from the National Lottery’s website due to new rules designed to protect children from gambling advertising.
The restrictions – introduced by the Committee for Advertising Practice (CAP) – stop popular elements of youth culture such as sports and video games from being used in gambling ads.
How to enter £2.50 Monopoly Gold Instant Win Game
The National Lottery's app provides access to a number of instant win games.
In order to play, download the app from the Google Play Store on Android devices or the App Store on Apple phones.
After registering and proving you’re over 18, you can play the Lotto’s instant win games.
The list of games on the app is different to those available on the web, however.
Games available on the app include the £250,000 Jackpot Multiplier, £10,000 Bingo, and £1 Million Jackpot, among others.
Entry prices for the games range from just 25p up to £5.
If you wish to play Instant Win Games in the app, you may on occasion need to download a feature in order to play the game with full animation. You will only need to download the feature once for each new game you want to play.
The app is often updated in order to ensure its security, according to The National Lottery. However, this does mean that some older operating systems are no longer compatible with the latest version of The National Lottery app.
