Looking for some quick money? Here’s an outside chance.

August 7th, 2009

The way the stock exchanges around the world are behaving, this may be a better bet if you are a gambler at heart. But you’ll be playing against me and the entire 60 million population of Italy. The prize is the SuperEnalotto jackpot, currently standing at 119 million Euros or a cool 171 million dollars. That’s a whole lot of bread.
All it will cost you is one Euro or a miserable $1.44 for two tries. And all you have to do is to match 6 numbers out of 90, a change from the usual 6 out of 49. This difference changes the odds somewhat. In a 6 out of 49 lotto, your chances of winning are about 1 in 14 million. In the Italian 6 out of 90 version, your odds drop to 1 in 622 million – so you need to choose your numbers carefully. That’s how they manage to rack up these huge lotto jackpots. Wins are few and far between.
This size of jackpot grabs people who normally shun the lotto because they consider it beneath them or who think it’s a ruse run by the state to raise taxes. So Italy is deep in the grips of lotto fever. The ongoing recession and the growing unemployment fuel dreams of instant wealth and sales of lotto tickets are booming. A recent report by the Censis social studies institute estimated that in June, Italians were spending an average of 7.8 million Euros (11 million dollars) a day on SuperEnalotto tickets.

In Varallo, a town of 7,500 in Piedmont province, the mayor convinced his five-person cabinet to each chip in and buy a 100 Euro ticket, which allows for several combinations of numbers. “Just imagine, we could abolish taxes, pay off mortgages and bring a little happiness,” said mayor Buonanno, in a telephone interview. “We will keep on playing until our six-number combination is drawn. We could buy some top soccer players, like David Beckham and Alessandro del Piero. That would put our town on the map.”

Psychiatrists and officials of the ever-present Roman Catholic church are warning lotto players that that the quick-fix hope raised by gambling can lead to long-term woe.

Everyone is entitled to dream and that’s what lotto offers, a slim chance of an instant lifestyle change. Some strapped town councils are even looking to Lady Luck. Earlier this week, the small Sicilian town of Ficarra diverted money from council salaries to bet on numbers associated with the local patron saint, the Virgin of the Assumption. However, in the end, it is Lady Luck who will decide who gets the jackpot.

I would love to have a ticket for this jackpot, but I’m not flying to Italy to buy one. I’ll just stay home and continue my day-dream right here. It started yesterday when I took my wife shopping and I parked next to a brand new Mercedes S type. Have you seen this machine?

This entry was posted on Friday, August 7th, 2009 at 3:36 am and is filed under Employment, Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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