Italy's popular SuperEnalotto lottery is still offering the world's biggest jackpot, with 126.5 million euros ($162 million) now up for grabs in Thursday night's draw. The current jackpot is the third-highest ever in Italy. The big payout has now failed to come up in the last 90 of the thrice-weekly draws. This is hardly surprising as betters have only a one in 622 million chance of claiming the prize. SuperEnalotto fever has been gripping Italy with bets up a total of 50% for the last three draws.

 

This week the town of Melito near Naples said it would put part of its annual budget into wagers in a bid to pay down debt and keep up municipal services. Last February two winning slips divided a SuperEnalotto pot worth 139.1 million euros, the second-highest ever in Italy after the staggering August 2009 win in Tuscany of a whopping 147.8 billion euros, a European record. The Italian game has a big advantage over many other ones, especially those in the United States, because it pays out the full prize and winners receive interest on the pot from the time they redeem their slips to when they receive complete payment, which usually takes two months for big payouts. Winners of the American games, on the other hand, receive the pot in long-term instalments, which often work out to be more or less the interest on the capital won over a 20-year period, or a single, reduced prize. Furthermore, SuperEnalotto winners can, and usually do, remain anonymous.