ITALY STILL OFFERS WORLD'S BIGGEST LOTTO JACKPOT
ITALY STILL OFFERS WORLD'S BIGGEST LOTTO JACKPOT
(ANSA) - Rome, October 30 - Italy's popular SuperEnalotto game continues to offer the world's biggest jackpot, although it is still far from the European record of 147.8 million euros it set over two months ago.
Saturday's draw will see 80.2 million euros up for grabs, while Europe's EuroMillions game is offering 77 million euros and America's PowerBall pot is a distant third at almost 35.8 million euros.
Before setting its European record in August, the SuperEnalotto pot reigned for weeks as the world's largest before it was first overtaken by Powerball and then by the American Mega Millions game.
The whopping SuperEnalotto jackpot was finally won on August 22 by someone in the small northern Tuscan town of Bagnone.
The Italian game has a big advantage over the American ones because it pays out the full prize and winners receive interest on the pot from the time they redeem their slips to when they receive full payment, which usually takes two months for big payouts.
Winners of the American games, on the other hand, receive the pot in long-term instalments, which often work out to be more or less the interest on the capital won over a 20-year period, or a single, reduced prize.
Furthermore, SuperEnalotto winners can, and usually do, remain anonymous.
In order to win at SuperEnalotto betters must choose the correct six numbers drawn from one to 90. Draws are held three times a week: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
The game also offers a big payout for a so-called 5+1 win in which an extra, seventh number is drawn and can be matched up with any five of the six winning numbers.
SuperEnalotto also pays out minor prizes for five, four and three correct guesses.
Each six-number combination costs 50 cents with a minimum two combination or one euro bet.
The biggest winner in SuperEnalotto has been the Italian Treasury which receives 49.5% of all bets made, far more than other national betting games which pay the Treasury between 20% and 25%.
The pool itself receives 38% of bets, slip vendors receive 8% and game organizers Sisal take a 4.4% cut.
Because of this summer's super jackpot, money collected from SuperEnalotto bets broke last year's record of 2.509 billion euros already by mid-September.
