At the end of September 2002, the total amount of money in the prize bond fund, that is, the total amount invested in the scheme, was €360 million. The net additional amounts invested in prize bonds in 2001 and 2000 were €35 million and €28 million respectively. The net additional amount invested in the period to end-September 2002 was €28 million. Encashments of prize bonds in 2001 and 2000 were €38 million and €41 million respectively. Encashments in the period to end-September 2002 totalled €32 million.
With regard to the prizes schedule, there are weekly draws for prizes, held every Friday. A jackpot prize of €150,000 is awarded on the first Friday of each month and a top prize of €20,000 is awarded on each of the following Fridays of the month. The other prizes awarded in every draw are currently as follows – October 2002: five prizes of €1,000; ten prizes of €250; and 1,698 prizes of €75.
As the prize bond fund grows, additional prizes are added to the €75 category. The total value of the prizes awarded in the prize bond draws is equal to the interest payable on the amounts invested in the scheme, and the current interest rate is 2.75% per annum.
The number of unclaimed prizes at end-September 2002 was 5,114. This includes prizes going back to the late 1950s when the prize bond scheme commenced. To put the number of unclaimed prizes in perspective, the total number of prizes currently being paid out annually by the Prize Bond Company is just under 90,000, valued at about €8.5 million. The amount of unclaimed prize money at end-September 2002 was €1.06 million.
The top winning numbers in every draw are available at post offices nationwide and the full draw results are displayed on the prize bonds website www.prizebonds.ie, and on page 699 of TV3's text service. A list of all unclaimed prizes is now also available on the prize bonds website, as are the results of the draws held in the previous seven months.