Romanian lotto draws in foreigners after EUR 10 mln prize

The winning numbers were 46, 35, 42, 1, 2, 34 and were guessed by a person who bought the ticket in Calarasi. State taxes on the winnings are about 25 percent.
In the week before the big pot was won, more than two million tickets were sold and more than seven million combinations were played, which means that given the price for a combination – more than one euro – the income of the lottery grew from this game alone by more than EUR 7 million.
In the week after the big prize was won, the top prize for the 6 of 49 game was EUR 1 million.
The biggest prize in the history of the Romanian lottery drew people who queued for hours in front of the lottery offices to buy a ticket.
The National Lottery Company could make a net profit of more than EUR 40 million for 2007, estimates Liliana Ghervasuc, general manager of the company. In 2006, it registered EUR 36 million in profit, out of which more than half went to the Ministry of Development, Public Works and Housing for housing development.
The National Lottery's profit is also directed towards the National Sports Agency, the Ministry of Culture and Religion and to the National Center of Cinema.
Compared to other places around the world, the Romanian prize of EUR 10 million is low. In the US the Powerball Lottery had a prize of $314 million which was won the same day as the Romanian prize, August 26. The Powerball Lottery is played in 31 of the 50 states of North America. The tariff in Romania, EUR 1.33, is comparable with those in Great Britain, France, Ireland and Germany. The ticket for a combination in Great Britain is EUR 1.45 and in Germany is EUR 1.65, while the same combination in Italy costs one euro, the games being similar to the one in Romania, 6 numbers out of 49, except Italy, where it is 6 of 90.
The biggest prize offered by a European lottery was in 2006, when a Portuguese and two French shared a prize of EUR 180 million.

Roxana Mihul