LONDON (Reuters) - A teen-ager with a criminal record has scooped nearly 10 million pounds ($15 million) playing Britain's national lottery on his first try, newspapers reported Tuesday.
At a conference organized by lottery company Camelot, Michael Carroll, 19, said he had never played the lottery before but on a whim decided to buy two "lucky dips" which netted him a 9.7 million pounds jackpot.

Carroll, who was recently released from jail and still has to wear a court-ordered electronic tag so police can monitor his whereabouts, said he was now going to mend his crooked ways. "I was like any normal teen-ager and made a few mistakes," he was reported as saying in the Daily Telegraph. "But that's all changed now. It won't happen again."

Carroll's win has prompted a furious response from some tabloid newspapers -- the Daily Star branded him a "Jammy Git" and the Sun called for convicted criminals to be banned from playing the lottery.



What the heck is a Jammy Git? I'm guessing that jammy in some ways refers to jam, but I'm certainly not sure.

It's certainly amusing what those papers will do to drum up circulation!


TEd