Latest news with #scratchcards
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Man buys every scratch card on Ryanair flight - and is shocked by the result
A Ryanair passenger who purchased every single scratch card while onboard a flight has revealed his shock at the unexpected outcome. Vikram Singh Barn, a British content creator and member of popular YouTube group the Sidemen, shared footage online of his friend Ethan Payne's extraordinary mid-air gamble in June. In a video uploaded to Vik's page, @viktok, the influencer captured Ethan purchasing the entire stock - a total of 68 packs - of scratch cards available on the flight. Fellow passengers looked on in disbelief as Ethan paid for the towering stack of cards balancing on his tray table, while a flight attendant stood by with a card machine, clearly bemused by the bizarre purchase. During the beginning of their endeavour, Vik said: 'We are here on Ryanair and this man Ethan has bought every single scratch card on the flight. I've opened about 100 scratch cards, I've been opening these one at a time.' As the scratching frenzy unfolded, even other passengers began chipping in to help - yet not a single winning card was found. It soon dawned on the pair that no prizes were forthcoming, with one passenger in the background heard exclaiming: 'No one won anything.' Vik added: 'You're supposed to match three - I can't even match two. We've lost again.' They couldn't believe they didn't win anything at all. Towards the end of the clip, an overlay caption sums up their experience: 'We won a grand total of €0.' The footage has since gone viral, with hundreds of stunned viewers flocking to the comments to share their thoughts. Many commenters debated over the legitimacy of in-flight scratch cards, with some wondering if anyone ever really wins. One person wrote, 'As funny as it is, Ryanair need to be investigated this is literally a scam,' while another joked, 'Ryanair's social media team seem to be quiet for once.' A third wrote, '100% they won't allow mass buying on the flight again lol,' as another mused, 'I wonder how many people have ever won money on those.' Another viewer observed: 'Why would anyone say if they'd won something just quietly slip into a pocket.' But one Ryanair flight attendant warned: 'I am cabin crew for Ryanair and there is soo much more than you don't know, they can't sell you that many... There is a limit spend per passenger. Crew in trouble?' One Ryanair passenger recalled: 'I remember winning like £26 of onboard vouchers. When asking to buy something I heard the cabin crew say "Someone's actually won" - that's how slim your odds are.' The footage has since gone viral, with hundreds of stunned viewers flocking to the comments to share their thoughts MailOnline has contacted Ryanair for comment. It comes after a doctor has hit out at Qantas after she splurged $15,000 on business class flights only to miss out on the dinner service. Dr Katie Waldman was flying 10 hours from Melbourne to Tokyo with her daughter last week when she waited 30 minutes for her food - before a flight attendant finally admitted they had 'run out'. 'I'm with my four-year-old Amelia and $15,000 or thereabouts is what I've paid for our flights return and I just would've expected the service to be a little bit better,' she said in a TikTok chronicling the incident.
The Sun
24-06-2025
- General
- The Sun
How to boost your chances of winning a £2million scratchcard jackpot and the ones to NEVER buy
GRABBING your lucky penny to see if you have won tens of thousands of pounds in an instant is all part of the thrill for scratchcard players. But there are ways you can boost your chances of winning with a few crucial steps, thanks to scratchcard expert Patrick Wareing's tips. 4 Patrick runs the website and has been dishing out top tips on how to bag a big prize since 2015. He also helps players work out which online scratchcards are best to play. Scratchcards offer life changing wins of up to £2million for punters and are sold at supermarkets, as well as garages and other convenience shops. National Lottery scratchcards cost between £1 to £5, depending on which one you choose. You can also buy online through the National Lottery website. Anyone 18-years or over can buy a scratchcard and play. Here's what you need to know before playing. Make sure you gamble responsibly. Track down the odds 4 Scratchcard odds can be found on the back of the slip, on the game procedures document or the National Lottery website. They can also be found on in-store screens at the till in shops. Typically, the more expensive the scratchcard, the better the odds - but this isn't always the case. The odds of winning on the Sapphire 7s Doubler scratchcard, which costs £2, is one in 3.37, whereas the odds of winning the Diamond Maze scratchcard, which is £5, is one in 3.58. Odds show how likely you are to win any particular prize - the lower the number, the better the odds. This means you have a better chance of winning with the £2 game compared to the more expensive £5 game. Of course, there's no guarantee you will win on your scratchcard, even if you buy many to increase your odds of winning. 4 Patrick said: "If you buy a scratchcard with odds of one in four, and you buy four scratchcards, you'd assume you get a winner. "Yet the odds are calculated on all scratchcards in circulation, which means that you aren't guaranteed a winner in this scenario. "It can work in your favour though, as you could equally win on all four scratchcards." A better method of calculating the likelihood of winning can be to take a look at what "return to player" rate is. This is what gambling experts define as the percentage of money that will be paid back to players from total scratchcard sales. It's essentially the pay out rate on scratchcards. National Lottery scratchcards usually pay out at a rate of between 60-70%. So say, for example, that the total of all the scratchcards sold was £1 million. A 65% pay out rate would mean that £650,000 would be paid out to players, with the remaining £350,000 going to National Lottery. The £100,000 A Month For A Year scratchcard has pay out rate of 70.02%. The £100,000 Multiplier Yellow scratchcard has an pay out rate of 61.75%. That's a difference of nearly 10% and can make a big difference to your chance of getting winnings. You can find information on prize rates on the game procedure documents, which are on the National Lottery website for each scratchcard. The scratchcards you can NEVER win the jackpot Before you buy your scratchcard, check whether the top jackpot prizes have already been won. The number of jackpot prizes available varies depending on what type of scratchcard you pick. Many people don't realise you can still buy National Lottery scratchcards even after all the top prizes have been won. For cards with a jackpot above £121,000, no new packs of scratchcards will be put on sale when the last top prize has been won. However, scratchcards that are already on display can continue to be sold. Information about remaining prizes is available on in-store National Lottery scratchcard terminals, but these can be easy to miss so make sure you visit the National Lottery website too. There won't be a breakdown of other winnings still up for grabs. Jackpot information is only every weekday, so there could be a delay if prizes are claimed on the weekend or on bank holidays. The National Lottery site currently shows that five out of around 50 scratchcard games on sale have already had the top prizes claimed. Use this nifty site If you're not sure which scratchcard to choose with the best chance of winning, this handy website could help. ranks which scratchcards are best to buy based on the chances of scoring the top prize. It uses an algorithm to give a rating out of 100 on popular scratchcards. It takes into account factors such as the price of the card, whether the top prize is still available to be won, how many cards are still available to buy, and the odds of winning. It also lists how much you might have to spend to win the jackpot statistically. The scratchcard rated the top buy on the site is currently Run For Your Money. It costs £5 and the jackpot is £1 million. The return to player rate is 70.12%, and two out of three jackpots have been won. Shockingly, statistically speaking, you could have to spend £4,990,920 on cards to win. Don't throw away a loser You may not believe it, but it's easier to lose track of a winning scratchcard then you might think. More than £57.6m worth of prizes went unclaimed by Lotto, EuroMillions and scratchcard players in the ten months to the end of January 2024. The National Lottery recommends you always sign a scratchcard and keep it safe if you have a winner. It sounds obvious, but make sure your card is definitely not a winner before chucking. This is more likely to happen with scratchcards featuring letters and numbers, such as the Bingo and Crossword styles. Patrick adds: "The National Lottery often changes the rules between new releases - even if they look similar to the ones before them." Even if you think you have a loser, it's a good idea to take it to a shop where they can check. Then you can be completely sure you don't throw away any winners. Don't leave it too late It's really important to know that all scratchcards have an expiry date. Even if you have a winner, you won't be able to claim your prize if the card is out of date. Prizes must be claimed before the end of the 180th day after the closing date of the game. This gives you roughly six months after the game has closed. But here's the catch, the closure dates are influenced by how many prizes are left. So to avoid missing out, cash in your prize as soon as you realise you have a winner. Remember, only gamble with money you can afford to lose, and set a spending limit before you play. Visit or if you need help. SCRATCHCARD winner Matthew Harding won a £500,000 jackpot, and revealed his secret to scooping the mega win. Shop assistant Matthew, from Nottingham, won big on the Pink Multiplier National Scratchcard in 2023. He said he always bought two scratchcards in a row because he heard that this makes you more likely to win. His tactic paid off, and he scooped the top jackpot. Matthew said at the time of winning: 'I treat myself to a scratchcard or two every month after payday and scratch them on my way home. 'I have seen a few customers in the shop winning £20 or £40 here and there so I thought I would give this particular one a go. 'I have always been told to buy two in a row as you are more likely to win. 'There may be no real logic in that but that's exactly what I do – I always buy them in a set. Matthew stuffed the card in his sock to keep it safe. He bought it from Greasley General Stores, Eastwood - the store he worked at the time. He made sure to sign the back of the card and didn't fold it so he could keep the card safe.
Irish Times
04-06-2025
- Health
- Irish Times
Irish people are talented at many things. But we have our shortcomings too
Ancestrally speaking, and just between us, there are things Irish people are and are not good at. Digesting dairy? We're very talented at it. Our lactose intolerance rate is under 5 per cent, which is way under the 65 per cent global average. That makes us almost superhumanly good at digesting butter, as well as exporting it. We can enjoy it without a roiling gut and an afternoon of debilitating cramps. Our ancestors equipped us to digest the foods around us, which is apparently largely dairy, and whatever the British weren't first having themselves. Knowing the secrets of everyone in the small town where we grew up? Nobody is better at that either. We are like a nation of grizzled but lovable private detectives. We all know Jimmy 'the wagon' (unfortunate and insensitive nickname – classically Irish) is off the wagon again when we see him sitting inside the window of the local Supermac's eating garlic cheese chips without a fork at half 11 in the morning. We are all familiar with the widely circulated rumour that Mary from down the road killed a man in a disagreement over scratch cards in 1984. Crucially, since they never found a body, she's still the school lollipop lady (we are all innocent until proven guilty). There are things Irish people are good at. Emigrating and then remaining very Irish in almost hermetically sealed cabals of their own despite being in Canada, or Australia , the Philippines, or wherever else. Alcohol consumption – unfortunately, we earned that reputation fair and square, and my numerous family members with drinking problems will readily attest to it as, I'm sure, will yours. READ MORE We have many gifts and talents. A penchant for the creative – art, literature and music. A sort of hardiness that comes of being largely cold and wet for hundreds of consecutive generations. (We might be genetically coded for immunity to trench foot.) A fitting and solemn respect for a dinner that is mostly carbohydrates as long as it has gravy on it. But we have shortcomings too. Many of these are not our fault, and I would argue strongly that one example is our poor ability to adapt to other climates. We have pollen in Ireland, of course, and the summer season is an absolute pain in the face (quite literally) for anyone with hay fever in a country richly carpeted in grass Living in Australia, I've seen more than one man red as a beet in a Mayo jersey, his boiled forehead audibly sizzling under the Australian sun as he declares it's 'actually unbelievable to feel the heat' on his face. 'My friend,' I think, 'the heat you are feeling is radiation scrambling your DNA. Get some factor 50 on or you'll be scraping your forehead skin up off the floor.' [ Hay fever and asthma sufferers face more severe symptoms due to agricultural fertilisers - study Opens in new window ] Those of Celtic heritage developed their skin tone, as I did, vaguely in the vicinity of Limerick, where sunlight is a thing we mostly read about in books and consider a rare and special treat, like having pancakes for dinner. It's all well and good for us to be going to California or Sydney or the UAE or wherever, but we would be foolish indeed to think that we don't need to take precautions to protect ourselves against a climate we are ill-equipped to survive in. We need sunscreen, ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) clothing and a decent hat or we will, quite simply, perish. Pollen is no different. We have pollen in Ireland, of course, and the summer season is an absolute pain in the face (quite literally) for anyone with hay fever in a country richly carpeted in grass. We would go to visit my great aunt who lived on Bere Island every summer when I was a child. Each year, just as I was taking in the verdant majesty of my favourite part of the country, my eyes would promptly swell shut. Because it was the 1990s, nobody thought to actually do anything much to assist a temporarily blinded seven-year-old with restricted airways. In fairness, my great aunt did say she'd pray for me, which was good of her. Unfortunately, in the depths of my youth and physical discomfort, this promise served only to convince me that I was dying. So look, I thought I 'knew' pollen. She has been my old nemesis, reeling drunkenly forth each year as spring slurs blowsily into being, and staying long past her welcome once September arrives, still swaying alone on the dance floor as people are stacking chairs in the background. 'The season is over, you relentless slattern,' I would think. 'Go to bed'. And, eventually, she would. My airways would clear and my eyeballs decrust, and there would be room to promptly catch a cold that you couldn't shake till April, like every other respectable Irish person. Still, somewhere out on the vast, mountainous horizon, there are plants desperately trying to have sexual intercourse with one another Then, I moved to Canberra, the hay fever capital of Australia, which does have a primary pollen season during the summer but also enjoys a rolling repertoire of other, less extreme pollen seasons through most of the year. You can actually see the pollen, rolling in mucky clouds, on a windy day. It furs window screens and sills, parked cars and public benches, giving everything it touches the look of something long neglected on Miss Havisham's diningroom table. It gathers in your hair and eyebrows, clinging to your clothes. You can see it running down the drain when you wash your face at night. It plagues people with asthma, who are advised to shower on arrival at home during the worst of the year, lest they keep repollinating themselves each time they move. [ The challenging art of pollen forecasting Opens in new window ] Now, it's autumn in Canberra, as the Irish climate warms up, and I somehow still have hay fever. The leaves are falling, limp and yellow, and my thermals are on and my feet are cold, and still, I am sneezing. Still, somewhere out on the vast, mountainous horizon, there are plants desperately trying to have sexual intercourse with one another. Possibly, there's some sort of lesson in all this, but I'm too congested to glean what it is. It does make me miss Limerick a bit, though, and its chaste plant-life that has the decency to die – or to play dead – once autumn shuffles in. Sign up to The Irish Times Abroad newsletter for Irish-connected people around the world. 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