Italian lottery soars to €140m heights

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

Italy's multi-million Euro SuperEnalotto main prize is still up for grabs, soaring to a record €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 €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 €81,000 for six tickets. There were 19 series of numbers on each ticket. Had they gotten lucky, they would have taken home €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 €100.7 million, won on October 23rd las (2008) year.

Since the start of the year, players have spent more than €2.04 billion chasing the elusive first prize, Associated Press reports. Half of all the money played goes into the state's coffers.

Source: InfoPowa News