Rome, Aug 23 (DPA) After going uncollected for almost eight months, the 146.9-million-euro ($209.5-million) jackpot prize in Italy’s state lottery was finally won Saturday.
The winning six number combination was 10-11-27-45 -79-88.
The lucky ticket was bought in Bagnone, a town of just 1,945 residents in Tuscany, the ANSA news agency said.
The identity of lottery winners seldom becomes public in Italy, where the biggest prize won before Saturday’s draw was 100.7 million euros, which went last October to the holder of a ticket bought in Sicily.
Saturday’s prize topped what is believed to be the previous highest lottery win in Europe when a 25-year-old Spanish woman in May won 126 million euros.
Superenalotto draws in Italy are held three times a week, usually on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and until Saturday no-one had hit the big jackpot (which increases each week) since Jan 31, 2009.
The Superenalotto lottery attracted millions of punters undaunted by the odds of winning that were estimated at about one in 622 million.
Betting fever also spread abroad with people from neighbouring countries such as France, Switzerland and Austria, hopping across the border to Italy just to buy a ticket.
Popular tabloid newspapers in Germany and Belgium ran their own competitions offering winners free air tickets to fly to Italy to buy Superenalotto tickets.
