December 2nd 2023.
Anita Pires has the best job in the world. Every day she answers phone calls from people who think they might have won the lottery. She reckons she’s told hundreds that they’ve just won a life-changing sum of money. She rarely meets anyone she delivers the good news to, but she did get to meet Andrew and Paula Hancock after telling them they’d won £1 million.
“I love my job,” Anita explains. “It’s an honour to be part of such a special moment that they will remember forever. We’re just the initial information, but we’re still very proud to say we’re the first person that confirms they’ve won the money, and the amount.”
Anita has worked at the National Lottery call centre in Watford since 2007. The biggest jackpot she’s ever confirmed was a staggering £45 million. She takes a winner’s call every week, and sometimes there’s an influx coming in.
“When you’re confirming those amounts,” Anita says, “you can sense happiness, relief, and sometimes you get the opportunity to ask what they think they will be doing first. For most people, it’s just disbelief. Even though you’re in it to win it, it’s still unbelievable.”
Since it launched in 1994, the National Lottery has made 7,000 people millionaires. There’s no way to guess how they will react, but Anita remembers one particularly memorable call. “There was just continuous screaming,” she says. “I’ve heard sobs, people have gone quiet and you can hear them crying.”
People play the lottery for many different reasons, and for many, the possibility of winning a huge jackpot feels so unlikely that they may not have any idea how to spend the money once they realise they’ve won. But for Anita, it’s about making a difference in people’s lives.
“I’m very proud to be able to say we do raise above £30 million a week for good causes,” she says. “It’s great to see how many zeroes there are following the one, because at that point they’re a millionaire. It’s life-changing, it’s for their family as much as it’s for them.”
The excitement in the call centre when they know there’s a big jackpot coming is palpable. “We’re all hoping to take a call from one of the 10 that comes forward,” Anita says. “When there was a £184 million jackpot, it was amazing. We were all waiting until they called in a couple of days later.”
Anita may not have won the lottery, but she’s proud to be part of the process that helps people make their dreams come true.
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