Still no Italy lottery winner as jackpot soars to €144m

A betting frenzy among Italians is set to continue after the record-breaking state lottery again failed to produce a winner yesterday, sending the jackpot up to almost €144 million.

No one has picked the winning six-number combination since January and the rising jackpot has tempted unprecedented numbers of Italians to take their place in queues for tickets at bars and tobacconists to try to land the life-changing prize.

The SuperEnalotto jackpot, at €143.9 million, is the biggest ever in Europe and has even drawn tourists from neighbouring countries across Italy's borders to try their luck.

A phone-in contest in Germany offered the winners 140 free return airline tickets from Berlin to Milan's Malpensa airport to play the lottery, the popular daily Bild reported.

The jackpot has not been won since January 31, despite draws being held three times a week, every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

However the SuperEnalotto already has one big winner - the hard-pressed Italian Treasury, which has seen lottery money go some way to compensate for a slump in tax revenues as Italy grapples with its worst post-war recession.

The Treasury will keep about half of more than €2 billion of bets laid since the last jackpot in January.

The rest is paid out in winnings and divided between ticket vendors and lottery organiser Sisal SpA. The SuperEnalotto fever saw monthly bets on the game rise to €441 million in July from a more usual €200 million as Italians, lured by the massive prize, are clearly happy to spare the minimum of €1 for a lottery ticket.

Betting rose a further 67.8 per cent in the first half of August from the same period in July, and has risen 13.2 per cent in the last week from the week before, Italian state television Rai I reported yesterday.