Betfred Big Winner: Pompey punter’s unusual plan to spend his windfall

It’s the last thing you’d expect a big Betfred winner to be thinking about – but Gerald Mitchell is now preparing for his own funeral!

Most will go on holiday or buy a new car, but the retired engineer from Portsmouth has vowed to plan for when he’s no longer with us.

Gerald is only 65 years old and reckons he’ll be around for many years to come… but that’s not stopped him pressing ahead with plans for what he describes as a “cheap and cheerful cremation”.

The “happy divorcee for 45 years”, as he describes himself, won £25,000 from a £2 wager on the Irish Lotto at his local Betfred shop in Cosham.

He said: “I’m going to put the majority straight into a savings account and then spend the rest on funeral arrangements, as nobody’s going to last forever!

“It’ll be a cheap and cheerful cremation. If I had my way, I’d go in a cardboard box, but it looks like I’ll have to settle for a wicker casket.

“I want to sort it out now to avoid a potential problem for my relatives when I’m not here. I’m determined not to waste the money I’ve won and reckon this is a great way to spend it.

“To be honest, I’m in good health at the moment, walking the 300 yards or so to my local Betfred shop quite regularly. You never really know though, do you? I’m feeling fine, but you can’t even get into the GPs for a check-up nowadays.”

He narrowly missed out on the £1million jackpot, which is won for predicting all five numbers plus the CashBall – which in this case was number six.

Gerald landed four numbers – 13, 16, 19 and 37 – which he’s been using since he switched from the National Lottery four years ago, plus his favourite number six that represents his birthday.

He went on: “I worked out for myself that the odds are far better on the Irish Lotto than the National Lottery, and I’ve had some smaller wins over the last four years or so, but not as big as this.

“I suppose people might think it’s an unusual way to spend my winnings, but I don’t!”

Betfred boss Fred Done said:

“I’ve arranged for Gerald to have some champagne, and I hope he enjoys this bottle and many, many more in the future.

“He’s clearly thought this through – and if that’s how he wants to spend his winnings then who are we to argue.”

Read about more Betfred Big Winners here at Betfred Insights