Lotto fever
August 17, 2009
The Italian Superenalotto draw should have taken place on Saturday. But due to a public holiday, it will now take place on Monday.
Since January, Italians have been trying in vain to guess the Superenalotto's winning six-number combination. Draws are held three times a week. For 83 draws, no one has come up with the winning six numbers. The chances of guessing the correct combination are an astronomical 623 million to one.
Not just locals but also tourists in Italy have been playing the Superenalotto. Foreigners from neighboring France, Austria and Slovenia have been driving into Italy to snatch up tickets.
In Germany, the mass-circulation Bild newspaper sponsored a phone-in competition, giving 140 Germans a chance to win free flights to Italy so they could buy tickets for the last lottery draw.
The winners took a plane from Berlin to Milan, bought their tickets at a cost of one euro (US $1.74) each at an airport cigarette shop - and then flew back home.
sc/wl/AP/dpa
Editor: Susan Houlton