Italy's 110 mln euros jackpot creates gaming fever

By Nigel Tutt

MILAN, July 30 (Reuters Life!) - Italy's SuperEnalotto jackpot of 109.9 million euros ($155 million), the result of several rollovers, has triggered a surge in ticket buying from people hoping to scoop the world's biggest current jackpot.

'I have just bet two euros. I don't regularly play SuperEnalotto. I'm doing it because of the prize,' said Luca Poerio after filing his betting slip at the Caffe San Lorenzo bar next to the Milan clothes shop where he works.

Daniele Maraschi, barman at the San Lorenzo in Corso di Porta di Ticinese near Milan's city centre, said the huge jackpot is attracting punters. 'Absolutely yes. They each spend 2 euros. There are more people playing with less money.'

'When the prize is very high the games sell themselves. I have a lot of new customers because of SuperEnalotto,' he said.

The SuperEnalotto is run by the private equity-owned Sisal SpA company. It takes a minimum 1 euro to play and choose six numbers to win. The game competes in bars with games like Lottomatica's instant scratch-and-win cards.

So far this year, punters have bet 1.657 billion euros on winning SuperEnalotto spending an average of 2.72 euros each and Sisal has paid out 530 million euros in prizes, Sisal said.

In July 393 million euros was bet, or 14 million euros a day, according to Italy's Agipro specialist news agency.

The latest potential jackpot is the highest in SuperEnalotto's 11-year history exceeding the previous record of 100.7 million euros paid out last October, Sisal said.

But SuperEnalotto's latest jackpot is still some way from the largest ever, which, according to Guinness World Records, is the U.S.'s Powerball prize of $365 million won in Feb. 2006 by eight workers from a meat-processing plant from Nebraska.

In Europe, the record jackpot is the 126 million euros won in Spain in a Euromillions game on May 8, according to Agipro.

Back in Caffe San Lorenzo in Milan, barman Maraschi does not expect a big celebration if one of his customers' tickets wins. 'I had one person win 50,000 euros on the SuperEnalotto two years. I (still) don't know who it was.'

(Writing by Nigel Tutt; Editing by Matthew Jones) ($1=.7095 Euro) Keywords: ITALY SUPERENALOTTO/ ([e-mail]; [phone]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.