A couple who won a $15 million lottery jackpot are still claiming $734 a month disability benefits more than six years after their jackpot win.

Mick and Jean O'Shea won the £10.2 million EuroMillions lottery jackpot in 2005 but Mr O'Shea still receives the disability allowance.

"We've nothing to hide. I worked for 40 years and I'm entitled to it," Mr O'Shea, a former builder, 73.

"I've been getting it since about 1996. I declared the win to the authorities at the time, but it doesn't matter as it's not means-tested."

Mr O'Shea said he has osteoarthritis in his legs as well as rheumatoid arthritis in his hands and had recently had a hip operation.

"It's for his eyesight and arthritis. We're entitled to it," Mrs O'Shea, 72, added.

Mr O'Shea also receives a new car every three years under the UK Government's Motability scheme for disabled drivers.

The couple live in Nottingham, England in a council house they purchased for £5000 in 1977. Houses in the area now sell for an average of £190,000.

A neighbour said that Mr and Mrs O'Shea go on holiday several times a year to countries such as Australia, Canada and Alaska. The pair also had a house built in County Kerry, Ireland, after their win which is now worth £600,000 .

But the couple only use their second home in Ireland for holidays - if they lived there full-time they would not receive any handouts as disability benefits in Ireland are means tested.

Taxpayer's Alliance campaign director, Emma Boon, dismissed Mr O'Shea's argument that he has a right to claim disability allowance after years of paying tax himself.

"It's irrelevant if he has paid tax all his life and that is a ridiculous argument to make," she said.

"The disability allowance and mobility scheme is there for people who genuinely need it and have no other way of getting help.

"It is not some sort of tax rebate for the rich - and it is not there for newly-made millionaires to take advantage of.

"He is taking away money and services from others who genuinely need it and can't afford to pay for it themselves.

"This just shows there is a problem with the way certain benefits are administered if someone well off can use the mobility scheme to get themselves a new car for free - that's not what that scheme was created for.

"We have asked the Government to address these issues regarding benefits administration and what Mr O'Shea is doing just further demonstrates how important it is that this is looked at as soon as possible and appropriate changes are made.'

Under UK Government reforms, disability living allowance will be replaced by personal independence payments, which will involve more rigorous checks on claimants but will not be means-tested.

A spokesman for the UK Department for Work and Pensions said: "We do not discuss individual cases but these specific benefits and allowances are not means-tested."

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As we move into the final stretch of the 2011/2012 EPL season Manchester City are sitting at the top of the league table with Manchester United in second, Spurs still maintaining 3rd place followed by a Chelsea side that are showing signs of a return to form.

Manchester City have a few key players away at the African Cup Of Nations which was highlighted in their rather slim victory against Wigan Athletic recently and you do get the feeling that the league table position could change radically over the next few weeks.

Roberto Mancini was without doubt a great player despite his final appearances for Leicester City, but I am not convinced that he has enough management experience to keep the ever growing playing squad happy and to bring the EPL trophy to the success hungry City fans and demanding oil rich owners.

Manchester United are looking a bit threadbare in squad quality depth these days with Sir Alex Ferguson’s hand tied by an ever mounting debt that the owners have to service and some early signs of unrest within their star player ranks. Experience is something that the aging squad have in abundance, but when you ask pensioners such as Giggs and Scholes to continue playing, it is a clear papering of cracks is underway.

Spurs have been playing a very attractive brand of football and are worth the ticket price to watch, but the squad is a little thin and a few injury's and lack of new additions to stimulate progress will certainly have an effect for the final run in to the season.

Chelsea have suffered from a very bad run of form but are still in touch around 8 points behind the league leaders at this stage and showing signs of improvement under the new management team. Without doubt there is a rebuilding job required as a lot of the players are now on the wrong side of 30 but Drogba, Lampard, Terry and Ashley Cole are still head and shoulders above the new recruits. Daniel Sturridge shows some brief flashes of quality, but is quite a way off the finished article and you start to think that Chelsea need to invest heavily over the next few years to rebuild into a side with enough quality to challenge.

Arsenal have just recruited Tiery Henry for a 6 week loan spell from the New York Red Bulls, but again, it is a stop gap signing and should Robin Van Persie get injured or suffer any loss of form, they will be struggling to qualify for European Champions League football next season and that could spell a few years out in the cold and a probably change of management.

Our prediction for the final league table is:

1st - Manchester United
2nd - Manchester City
3rd - Chelsea
4th - Tottenham Hotspurs
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5th - Arsenal
6th - Liverpool
7th - Newcastle

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A Malaysian company's plan to build a $4 billion convention center and big-time casino on the outskirts of New York City could be the biggest shot fired yet in a tourism arms race that has seen a growing number of Eastern states embrace gambling as a way to lure visitors and drum up revenue.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced last week that he would work with the Genting Group, one of the world's largest and most successful gambling companies, to transform the storied but sleepy Aqueduct horse track into a megaplex that eventually would include the nation's largest convention center, 3,000 hotel rooms, and a major expansion of a casino that began operating at the site in October.

New York will have lots of competition: Two months ago, once-puritanical Massachusetts passed a law allowing up to three resort casinos, plus a slot machine parlor.

Ohio is poised to offer its first commercial casinos this year. Maryland's first casino opened last year. And Pennsylvania, which opened its first casinos in 2006, is threatening to surpass Atlantic City as the nation's second-largest gambling market.

In Florida, lawmakers are hotly debating a whopper of a bill that would allow up to three multibillion-dollar casinos, plus slot machines at dog and horse tracks.

States have embraced casinos after years of trepidation about their societal costs for two simple reasons: a promise of a rich revenue source, plus the possibility of stimulating tourism.

The rising number of sites competing fiercely for gamblers' dollars could mean that projected revenue streams will overlap, leaving hopeful states and investors with less than the bonanza they expect

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A Silicon Valley financial analyst came forward Friday on Long Island to claim a $208 million lottery jackpot, saying he had to repeatedly check his winning ticket before realizing he had won.

"It didn't seem real; you just don't believe it," said Daniel Bruckner of San Jose, Calif.

He and his wife, Christine, had been visiting her family on Long Island over Christmas when he bought the winning ticket while shopping for dinner at a supermarket.

His father-in-law had a printout of the winning numbers, he said, but still he went to the lottery website to check the numbers, then called the lottery hotline to check again.

"No one believes it when you first say it," he said, when they tell friends about their good fortune. "Because you don't believe it yourself."

At a news conference Friday, the couple declined to say exactly where Bruckner worked. They plan to take a lump-sum payment that will leave them with $101 million after taxes, lottery officials said.

"It's very surreal," Bruckner said. "It's exciting, but very surreal."

The winning Mega Millions numbers were drawn Dec. 27.

Bruckner, 35, said he typically shops at the King Kullen supermarket in Middle Island when he is in town.

"I picked up food for dinner and saw how big the jackpot was so I decided to buy a ticket," he explained. He said he played the lottery from time to time but only previously won "a few bucks."

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A RETIRED Toowoomba builder has $2,504,354 reasons to smile after scooping the Keno jackpot pool over the weekend.

The man, who did not want to be identified, placed the winning 10-spot Kwikpik bet at the Stock Exchange Hotel on Saturday afternoon.

The winner said he hardly slept on Saturday night because he still could not believe he had really won the major jackpot.

"The Keno operator put my ticket in the machine and the machine froze and said the win was too big to pay out," he said.

Stock Exchange duty manager Russell Capern said the winner was a regular at the Anzac Ave hotel.

"He comes in twice a week for a beer and a punt," Mr Capern said.

"When Keno rang us to notify us of the win we were all running around the hotel trying to find out if it was one of our local punters.

"It was not until yesterday morning when his mates came in to the hotel did we find out who he was."

Mr Capern said the win could not have gone to a better bloke.

"He is a quiet fellow, a very modest man that normally keeps to himself."

The winning numbers were 3, 6, 40, 45, 53, 57, 59, 67, 73 and 76

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LAS VEGAS -- Muffled sobs erupted Friday in the courtroom packedwith supporters of the Roman Catholic clergyman who was sentenced to more than three years in federal prison and ordered to repay $650,000 he acknowledged embezzling from his northwest Las Vegas parish to support his gambling habit.

Monsignor Kevin McAuliffe, 59, stood straight and offered noreaction as U.S. District Judge James Mahan credited him for accepting responsibility for looting parish votive candle, prayer and gift shop funds for eight years, but faulted him for "hedging his bet" by blaming it on the gambling addiction.

"You abused the position of trust, Mr. McAuliffe," the judge said. He dispensed with any church title for the clergyman who hid a weakness for casinos and video poker from parishioners who know him as Father Kevin.

"You betrayed people who depended on you." McAuliffe offered the remorseful apology, saying he felt "guilt, shame and self-loathing," and noting which he had "rightly" lost his positions of authority in the church. He asked the judge for leniency so he could make restitution, help others with gambling addictions "and atone for what I have done."

Defense attorney Margaret Stanish asked the judge for probation so McAuliffe could continue getting counseling for his gambling addiction, keep practicing as the clergyman and pay restitution to St.Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Summerlin. He won't get treatment in federal prison, Stanish said. "Is it all about retribution?" she asked the judge. "This court has the ability to fashion the punishment which takes into account not only the offense but the individual. He would not be here but for a gambling addiction."

Stanish brought in Dr. Timothy Fong to testify which McAuliffe's gambling compulsion amounted to "self-medication" by the man masking feelings of stress, depression, sadness, social anxiety and inadequacy. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Christina Brown characterized McAuliffe as an opportunist and thief who didn't exhaust his own savings before taking church cash to fund gambling, cars and travel. She accused him of grasping at gambling addiction as "a hollow excuse offered now, when he's desperate for leniency fromthe court."

The prosecutor derided Fong's diagnosis as unsupported by asingle 2 1/2 hour interview with McAuliffe, several telephone calls with his defense attorney and the review of self-assessments that McAuliffe provided in sessions with other counselors at the gambling addiction clinic in Las Vegas. Treatment only began after FBI agents questioned him last May about missing church funds, she said. And Brown pointed to counseling reports which she said suggested McAuliffe was focused more during therapy on his legal predicament than on getting help for the gambling addiction. "He did do good," she said. "But he also stood before his congregation preaching about sin, lies, theft and greed ... all the while deceiving them."

The judge referred to the parish rift over McAuliffe's crime when he said he received approximately 100 letters of support through the priest's defense attorney. Mahan also made part of the court record the stack of letters parishioners sent straight to the court saying McAuliffe should be punished. "I expect the church to forgive him, and the parishioners by and large to forgive him," Mahan said from the bench. "That's different than the justice system." McAuliffe pleaded guilty in October, before an indictment or criminal complaint was filed, to three counts of federal mail fraud for falsifying documents sent in 2008, 2009 and 2010 to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese in San Francisco. Each count carried a possible sentence of 20 years in prison and the $250,000 fine. Mahan handed down the 37-month sentence -- midway between the 33-month minimum and 41-month maximum recommended by federal probation officials -- along with the restitution order.

The judgealso sentenced McAuliffe to three years of supervised release following prison and banned him from gambling. McAuliffe was ordered to begin serving his sentence April 13. Outside court,longtime parishioner Regina Hauck, 80, called the judge fair but the sentence unfair. She said she wanted forgiveness. "I know him. He's the wonderful priest," Hauck said of McAuliffe."But I think he's the sick man, and everyone makes the mistake." McAuliffe had already been removed as pastor of the northwestLas Vegas congregation of more than 8,000 families and relieved of diocese duties.

Bishop Joseph Pepe, head of the regional church administration since 2001, issued the statement Friday saying he was "saddened that the actions of Monsignor McAuliffe have caused hurt to so many people" and saying he was praying for the congregation. McAuliffe had complete control from 2002 to 2010 of church activities and finances at one of the largest Roman Catholic congregations in Nevada, and was able to hide his embezzlement because he was the signatory to financial statements to the Las Vegas diocese and San Francisco archdiocese, Brown said in presentencing documents.

When confronted by the FBI last May, McAuliffe spent two hours offering various explanations how his earnings supported his gambling, the prosecutor wrote.! "When these explanations failed, agents asked the defendant if he stole money from the church, which the defendant denied." Stanish told the judge in court documents which McAuliffe beganpaying restitution to the church in May and has paid $13,420 so far.

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