SuperEnalotto is the most popular national lottery game in all of Italy. Launched almost 20 years ago, it is enjoyed by millions of people every week, with players hoping to match six balls from a pool of 90 to take the top prize, which is usually a seven-digit sum.
There was cause for great celebration in October 2016, however, when after more than a year of rollovers, a single player managed to beat the odds not just to win SuperEnalotto jackpot prize, but to correctly match the supplementary SuperStar ball, which boosts the payout even further. The odds of doing so were positively enormous — just 1 in 56 billion — but the prize equally so: an earth-shattering €165.5 million.
However, that jubilation quickly turned into confusion and frustration after the winning ticket holder failed to emerge, days, weeks, even months later. After all this time waiting for someone to hit the jackpot, Italy was now desperately trying to find the person who had.
SuperEnalotto winners have just 90 days to collect their prizes, meaning that, at the time of writing, the jackpot winner has just 14 days left until their 25th January deadline arrives. Details regarding the identity of Italy’s missing millionaire are scant: the ticket is reported to have been purchased from the tabaccheria Lo Bianco on via Dante Alighieri in Vibo Valentia, but the shop owner says that, with his store being located in such a busy area of the city, he has no idea who it could have been.
Will the winner be found in time, or will the second-biggest jackpot in the history of SuperEnalotto slip through the winner’s fingers? All we can do now is wait.
