Italians Bet $760,000 an Hour on $235 Million Lottery Jackpot
A clerk validates Superenalotto tickets for patrons at a shop in Rome on Aug. 12, 2009. Photographer: Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images
A man fills out his SuperEnalotto lottery ticket in a shop in central Rome on Aug. 12, 2009. I Photographer: Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images
Italians are betting an average of 541,000 euros ($760,000) an hour in hopes of winning Europe’s biggest lottery jackpot of 169 million euros, sparking calls by the Roman Catholic Church and consumer groups to cap the prizes.
The odds of choosing the correct combination of six numbers from a total of 90 in today’s SuperEnalotto draw are one in more than 600 million, and no jackpot has been hit since February. That hasn’t damped the wagering, which reached 91 million euros in the past week. The numbers are drawn three times a week.
“I know that winning is extremely difficult, but I still hope to pick the right combination and I place bets every single week,” said Nora Villa, 80, a retired journalist. “If I win, I’d make a long trip abroad and buy designer clothes, but I would also give away some money to my relatives and a charity.”
The jackpot is spurring spending as Italy’s economy struggles to recover from the worst recession in 60 years. Unemployment tops 8 percent and the government plans 25 billion euros in deficit cuts in the next two years to trim its budget shortfall. The surge in lottery betting will improve the government’s finances as it takes in half the revenue from ticket sales, though the windfall has prompted criticism.
“The state doesn’t care about the fate of gamblers, who are often lonely people with a serious addiction,” Father Alberto Urso, head of Consulta Nazionale Antiusura, a Catholic Church organization against usury, said in an interview. “About four out of 10 people coming to us for help are gamblers who got heavily indebted with games like Superenalotto.”
Betting Figures
In the first eight months of the year, the government’s take from lottery and gambling totaled 6.2 billion euros, compared with 6.4 billion euros in the same period of 2009, according to an Oct. 13 report by the Economy Ministry. The government has shown little appetite for capping the payout.
One local administration embraced the game as a possible way to boost its finances. Melito, near Naples, has been spending 15 euros a week since September on trying to guess the correct six-number combination, using funds destined for the mayor’s salary. The town plans to use any payout to eliminate local taxes.
Sisal SpA, which has managed SuperEnalotto since its debut in 1997, expects the amount customers spend on purchasing the company’s games this year to grow by a “double-digit” figure, Chief Executive Officer Emilio Petrone said in a Sept. 16 e- mailed statement.
“SuperEnalotto’s jackpot should be capped at 100 million, and be shared with those who pick three, four or five out of the six lucky numbers,” Carlo Rienzi, chairman of consumer group Codacons, said in an interview.
Record Payout
The current SuperEnalotto jackpot exceeds the previous record payout -- the 147 million euros won in August 2009 by an unidentified resident of Bagnone, a town in rural Tuscany.
The Euro Millions lottery, a game shared by nine European Union countries, capped its jackpot at 185 million euros in March 2009. Spain’s Christmas lottery, known as El Gordo, or the Fat One, is considered the world’s largest with a total prize pool of more than $2 billion. In that game there are thousands of winning tickets, leading to smaller individual payouts.
U.S. multistate-lottery Powerball has paid larger jackpots than SuperEnalotto, though the prize money is taxed.
To contact the reporters on this story: Lorenzo Totaro in Rome at ltotaro@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: John Fraher at jfraher@bloomberg.net
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