£12 Million Lottery Ticket ‘Thrown in Bin’ After Terminal Failure
A Welsh woman is in limbo after claiming her £12 million National Lottery ticket was discarded as a loser — all because a shop terminal apparently failed to register the win.
Kath Main, 46, told reporters she has been playing the same six numbers for roughly 20 years. According to reporting by Casino.org, those numbers finally came up in the National Lottery draw on Saturday, 6 June 2026. The problem? The ticket had already been thrown away.
Main’s mother, Fiona, buys the family’s lottery tickets each week. After the draw, she popped into a Londis store in Abercynon, South Wales, to check the tickets. The terminal didn’t beep and nothing appeared on screen, so the store clerk asked whether she wanted to keep them. Fiona said no, and the tickets went in the bin.
When Main checked the results independently and realised she might be sitting on a £12 million jackpot, she phoned her mother — who broke the news that the ticket was already gone. The family contacted the store immediately, but the rubbish had already been collected.
To make matters worse, the store’s security cameras were not working that day, as the premises were undergoing renovation. That removes what would have been a straightforward way to confirm Fiona was in the shop with the ticket.
However, all is not necessarily lost. National Lottery operator Allwyn has launched a formal 30-day investigation into the claim. Lottery terminals log every ticket sold, meaning Allwyn may be able to trace the transaction through its own records even without a physical ticket.
Allwyn told The Sun the issue was “highly unlikely” to be a machine glitch, suggesting human error was the more probable cause. Normally, a physical ticket is legally required to claim a jackpot, though Allwyn does have procedures to handle cases involving lost or destroyed tickets — provided the claimant can satisfy the operator that they genuinely purchased the winning entry.
Main summed up the agonising wait: “I just feel sick all the time, it’s the not knowing and waiting.”
For UK players, this is a timely reminder to always double-check lottery tickets through the official National Lottery app or website rather than relying solely on in-store terminals. Keep up with the latest developments in our casino news, or browse our guides for tips on playing the lottery safely.
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