WINNER STORY · LOTTO
Martyn Tott lost a £3m Lotto ticket and never saw a penny. The rule that cost him
A Watford couple matched all six numbers, then found out their ticket was gone. They had the shop receipt, but they missed a 30-day deadline.
- Prize
- £3,011,065
- Game
- Lotto
- Draw
- 6 September 2000
- Where
- Watford, Hertfordshire
Martyn Tott was 25 and living in Watford with his wife, Kay. Between them they earned about £34,000 a year. Every week they played the same six numbers on Lotto.
On Wednesday 6 September 2000 those numbers came up. The draw was 6, 7, 11, 23, 32 and 44, with Bonus Ball 34. There was one jackpot winner, and the prize was £3,011,065.
The Totts didn’t find out for months. When they did, the ticket was nowhere to be found.
The 30-day rule
Martyn still had proof he’d bought a ticket at his local Londis shop. But the rules said a lost ticket had to be reported in writing within 30 days of the draw. By the time the Totts reported it, that window had long closed.
Camelot, which ran the National Lottery then, turned down the claim. The couple took legal advice, but they were told they had no real case.
“Having that money taken away was torture. For a long time, I lost sight of who I was.” Martyn Tott
What happened next
The stress took its toll, and Martyn and Kay later split up. Martyn quit his job, spent time in Nashville in the US and came back to the UK.
In 2009 he published Six Magic Numbers, a novel based on what happened. In his last big interview, in 2023, he was working as a writer and a self-taught filmmaker.
How not to make the same mistake
- Sign the back of your ticket and add your address as soon as you buy it.
- Take a photo of the front and back.
- If a ticket goes missing, report it in writing within 30 days of the draw. Don’t wait to see if it turns up.
- Play online if you can. Your entry is saved in your account, so there’s nothing to lose.
The same 30-day rule still applies today. Our guide on what to do if you lose your lottery ticket has the details.