Quote:Flavia Krause-Jackson
Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The winning ticket for Italy's richest-ever lottery jackpot, totaling 100 million euros ($125 million), was bought in the Sicilian city of Catania, where the mayor can't afford to pay municipal electricity bills.
The prize was announced last night on state broadcaster RAI SpA's TG2 news show. Catania, at the foot of Mt. Etna, had recently been in the news mostly for hovering on the verge of bankruptcy. Even though the winner has not yet come forward, the city's residents took to the streets to celebrate.
Italians have spent 347 million euros so far this month on tickets for the draw, according to Agipro News, an Italian agency dedicated to lotteries. About 20 million Italians, more than a third of the population, played the game in the last draw, on Oct. 18, according to lottery manager Sisal SpA. That compared with an average number of 9 million players, the company said.
The pot had grown to a record because nobody had picked a winning combination of six numbers since April. The winning numbers were 7-20-21-74-75-81.
To contact the reporters on this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson in Rome at fjackson@bloomberg.net