"A man who discovered he had secured Olympic tickets costing £11,000 told today how he decided to keep them all - after crunch talks with his wife.
Stephen Hunt, a Bloomsbury insolvency practitioner, said there was initially not enough money in his account to cover the payment and he was forced to make the "horrible choice" between increasing his credit limit or losing the tickets.
When he applied for £36,000 worth he expected to get hardly any but now hopes the huge payment will mean a seat at one of the "big three" events - the opening and closing ceremonies or the men's 100 metres final.
Mr Hunt, 42, a father-of-three and West Ham fan from Hertfordshire, said: "I checked my card and there was no debit and then I received a helpful email from the ticket agency saying we've tried to take money, it's been refused but we'll give you a second chance.
"We agreed to go for it. We contacted our bank and the bank agreed to increase. It's about double what I was hoping for."
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Hunt, who specialises in fraud investigation and company liquidation, added: "I'd rather scrimp and save for a bit extra then be disappointed."
At least 250,000 people are thought to have lost out after last night's midnight cut-off, who the organisers said would be contacted through email. They include the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who said he was "cheesed off" after checking his account this morning to see he had lost out in the online ballot.
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Families will have to wait for up to another three weeks to discover which 2012 events they will see.
Games organiser Locog reported 20 million applications from 1.8 million people bidding for 6.6 million public tickets.
There were more than one million bids to see the opening ceremony and men's 100 metres final.
Those who failed to secure tickets must join the scramble for any remaining tickets on a first-come, first-served tickets basis.
These are likely to include unsold seats at less popular events."
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