Lucky Irish Punter Collects €40,000 on Virtual Cartoon Racing

One lucky punter was left leaping for joy on Wednesday morning after defying odds of 26,000/1 and netting over €40,000 on a Lucky 31 bet with bookies Paddy Power.

The Limerick local, who works as a chef in the area, scooped himself €40,772.10 when all five selections of his lucky 31 horse racing bet romped home. The bet, which cost the man from Moyross just €1.55 to place, was an extra special celebration as the winning horses do not even physically exist.

The bet which consisted of five runners ranging from 25/1 to 9/2, was placed on Sprintvalley - a virtual, computer generated race meeting. The bet returned an initial €33,676 but a special 20% bonus from the bookmaker boosted the total winnings up to €40,772.

The local punter, who wishes to remain anonymous, said: "I actually can’t believe my luck. I only do the cartoon racing for a bit of fun as the odds are sometimes very generous. I never imagined all five would come up trumps for me. The horses might not be real but my winnings definitely are!"

"Virtual racing is getting more popular every day and means punters don’t have to wait around for too long to have a flutter. Cartoon racing or virtual racing as it’s known mightn’t be the real deal but there’s nothing virtual about a winner", a spokesperson for Paddy Power commented.