Italian lottery soars to new heights

Italy’s multi-million Euro SuperEnalotto main prize is still up for grabs, soaring to a record Euros 139.9 million this week after failing to find a six-number winner in the draw on Monday night.
The record breaking main prize is the result of repeated roll-overs as no winner has been found since January this year, when five winners shared a Euros 39.7 million jackpot.
Associated Press reports indicate that the size of the latest bonanza can only feed the lottery hysteria that has gripped Italy and surrounding countries, with would-be instant millionaires queuing up to but more SuperEnlotto tickets.
One lotto dealer in Modena, northern Italy, told AP that about 2 000 people teamed up to pay Euros 81 000 for six tickets. There were 19 series of numbers on each ticket. Had they gotten lucky, they would have taken home Euros 56 000 each.
Lottery officials described this week’s prize as the highest jackpot ever in Europe.
Before the current frenzy, the previous all-time high jackpot in Italy was the Euros 100.7 million, won on October 23rd las (2008) year.
Since the start of the year, players have spent more than Euros 2.04 billion chasing the elusive first prize, Associated Press reports.  Half of all the money played goes into the state’s coffers.

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