This is the ridiculous moment a Lotto winner is declared a millionaire live on TV only to have his prize taken away moments later.
Swiss Andreas Bürkli was the draw’s lucky winner just for a few seconds after his win had to be cancelled due to technical problems.
The draw took place on the Swiss TV show Happy Day back in 2018 when German singer Herbert Grönemeyer pulled Bürkli’s name out of a drum.
For mere seconds it seemed that the winner was about to have his life changed as a ticker-tape fanfare and a briefcase filled with cash were presented.
But unfortunately, the draw had to be annulled thanks to a technical blunder.
Swiss public TV channel SRF was forced to issue an apology to the man but he was reportedly a “good sport” about the mistake.
Participants paid £8 to enter the draw and sent their tickets back to lottery operator Swisslos hoping to win the prize of a million Swiss Francs – around £800,000.
According to the BBC the ten people who entered the final draw had to be ready by their phones.
There were more names reserved in case someone could not be reached.
As some could not be contacted and with time running out, a lottery official put 11 slots in the drum manually.
In a later statement, Swisslos apologised for the error and said the draw had to be carried out manually because of technical problems.
It said 11 names were loaded into the drum “in the hectic rush” rather than 10, and the extra one had been drawn.
When asked how did Mr Bürkli take the news, a Swissloss official said that he had actually responded well.
“You could even say he was a good sport,” they said.
