SuperEnalotto is a lottery

Lottery

A lottery is a form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize.Lottery is outlawed by some governments, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of regulation of lottery by governments...

 that has been played in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 since 3 December 1997. Draws take place on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 8:00 PM. The jackpots won are among the largest in the world, and the odds of winning the worst in the world.

Playing the game

Tickets cost one Euro for two tries.

The object of the game is to match 6 numbers out of 90. Should a player match all of them, he/she wins the jackpot.

Until June 30, 2009 the six main winning numbers were taken from the first number drawn in Lottomatica

Lottomatica

Lottomatica S.p.A. is an Italian company active in the gaming business. The world's largest operator of lotteries , Lottomatica also provides various other gaming services and related technologies. The company has its offices in Rome. In August 2006, it completed the acquisition of Gtech, a U.S....

's regional Lotto draws for the cities of Bari

Bari

Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...

, Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

, Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

, Palermo

Palermo

Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

 & Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 (used in that order). The Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 draw was used as a "Jolly" number. If the first number of a city had been used before, then the second of the city's draw was used - and so on. In this system there was a small probability that the numbers of two cities could be the same - in which case there would have been duplicate numbers and it would have been impossible to win the jackpot.

Since July 1, 2009 the numbers have been drawn independently of the Lottomatica draws. There is one single draw for the six winning numbers and the "Jolly" number and a second independent draw for the "SuperStar" number.

The "Jolly" number gives an additional chance to those who have matched 5 numbers. If they also match the "Jolly" number, they'll win a higher "5+1" prize.

One must match at least 3 numbers to win. The odds of winning for each category are:

Match	Odds
6	1 in 622,614,630
5+Jolly Number	1 in 103,769,105
5	1 in 1,250,230
4	1 in 11,907
3	1 in 327

The "SuperStar" number is an additional number which costs extra to play. Under the old rules it was taken from the National Lotto draw in Rome (Ruota Nazionale), under the new rules it is drawn in a separate draw independently from the 6 main numbers and the "Jolly" number. This means that the SuperStar number may be the same as another winning number. Matching it can increase the prize money by up to 100-fold or pay out a fixed amount even if the player fails to match any of the six main numbers.

For a nationwide lottery offering prizes in millions, SuperEnalotto is the most difficult game in the world in terms of hitting the jackpot judging by the odds mentioned above. The prizepool only consists of 34.648% of the sales, with about 54% going to the Italian state.

When it began the minimum cost (for two tries) was 1600 Italian Lire

Lira

Lira is the name of the monetary unit of a number of countries, as well as the former currency of Italy, Malta, San Marino and the Vatican City and Israel. The term originates from the value of a Troy pound of high purity silver. The libra was the basis of the monetary system of the Roman Empire...

, rising to 1900 Lire by the time the Euro

Euro

The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

 was introduced in 2002. Today's price, one Euro is equivalent to 1936.27 Lire.

Biggest payoffs

On May 4, 2005, a jackpot worth €71,767,565.57 (US$ 94,804,954.12) was won by a single ticket shared by ten customers at a bar in Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

. For over three years, this was the game's largest jackpot. This was later broken by a prize of €100,756,197.30 (US$ 129,753,830.88) which was won by a single ticket on October 23, 2008 in Catania

Catania

Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...

. A record breaker prize of €147,807,299.08 (US$ 211,807,859.58) was won on August 22, 2009 by one ticket holder in Bagnone

Bagnone

Bagnone is a comune in the Province of Massa-Carrara in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 120 km northwest of Florence and about 35 km northwest of Massa in the Lunigiana, facing the Monte Sillara...

 (Toscana). The largest jackpot up to date is worth €177,800,000 ($247,943,104) and was won by one ticket holder on October 30, 2010.

External links

• http://www.sisal.it/se/se_main/1,4136,se_Default,00.html Official Website