Wigan has one of the highest percentages of Lotto winners

Wigan has been named as a lucky place to live for the National Lotto

It was officially confirmed today that the WN postcode has been one of the luckiest places to live since the state-franchised game began more than 20 years ago.

Official figures show that out of every 1,000 people over the age of 16 in Wigan, one person has won at least £50,000 with several becoming millionaires.

The National Lottery say it has made a massive 219 major prize winners in Wigan since its launch, equating to almost one every month.

And to celebrate this achievement, a new lucky town sign was yesterday unveiled at the DW Stadium.

And with Latics having just been named League One Champions Lottery bosses say it helps cap off a  successful year.

Andy Carter, Senior Winners’ Advisor for The National Lottery, the man who pays out the big winners, said: “Wigan is known for having incredible luck on its side when it comes to football with some really great records over the years and this news surely confirms it.

“There are now a massive 4,250 National Lottery millionaires across the country and with more than six new millionaires made every week there is likely to be another local winner made soon.”

Simon Horne, from Camelot who run the National Lottery added: “Wigan is massively lucky!

“We take the population of the area and we divide it by the number of high tier winners.

“This places Wigan ninth of all the post codes in the country and with 121 post codes, that’s pretty successful!”

It isn’t just individuals winning big though, the entire community benefits from the money raised by The National Lottery.

During the last year, 59 grants worth £1,350,359 were distributed to National Lottery funded projects in the Wigan area.

Groups and organisations which have benefitted from funding in the region include:

Higher Folds Community Centre

Wigan Athletic FC Community Trust

St Catherine’s Primary School

Wigan and Leigh Young Carers

Each National Lottery player helps to raise over £34m every week for good causes. This helps fund our athletes competing at Rio, the nation’s arts and heritage, and many thousands of projects in local communities across the UK.