Birthday scratch card lands Tallaght man €59,000 on Winning Streak
By William O'Connor
A SOFTWARE engineer from Tallaght, who admitted to never watching Winning Streak in his life before he got on the National Lottery TV game show, won €59,000 on Saturday.
35-year-old Robert Smyth from Aylesbury was as surprised as anybody to hear that his name was called out to appear on Winning Streak last week after he confessed that he rarely buys a ticket or even watches the hit RTÉ One show!
Robert Smyth won €59,000 on last Saturday’s Winning Streak Game Show on RTE. Pictured are Sinead Kennedy Winning Streak game show co-host; Robert Smyth the winning player; Declan Murray and National Lottery Marty Whelan, Winning Streak Game Show co-host. The winning ticket was bought from Dunnes Stores, The Square.
Robert spent a lot of time last week viewing previous Winning Streak episodes on the RTÉ Player so he knew what to expect when he sat in the contestants chair on Saturday evening.
Robert has his mother in-law Rose to thank for his appearance on the show, as she gifted him a scratch card for his recent 35th birthday, which led to him sending the lucky three-star entry which got him on the show.
Robert has been married to wife, Triona for the past five years and they have two children, Sean (4) and Saorlaith (2.) He was joined in the Winning Streak studio with all of his family which included his dad, Sean, mother, Marie, sister, Carol and some of his aunts, uncles and cousins.
Robert works as a Software Engineer, likes to run marathons and is in the process of training for the Dublin City Marathon this month.
To celebrate his win, Robert ran a half marathon up the Dublin Mountains the Sunday morning after the show.
While he has no firm plans for his impressive haul, Robert will treat his family with his Winning Streak windfall!
Meanwhile Michael Kenny from Tallaght was drawn as the winner of a Luxury Cruise for two valued at €5,000.
