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EuroMillions jackpot hits $68m
16/12/2006 20:15 - (SA)
Paris - The EuroMillions lottery jackpot on Friday will climb to 52 million euros ($68m) after three weeks have passed with no one picking the seven winning numbers, the lottery commission said on Saturday.
On December 22, just before the Christmas holidays get under way, players in the nine countries that hold the EuroMillions lottery - France, Spain, Britain, Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal, Ireland and Austria - will have one chance in some 76 million of having the winning ticket.
Friday's jackpot is far from the record 183 573 077 euros on February 3 that was split among three winners - two from France and one from Portugal.
Last month 20 runners-up won more than nine million euros each after no one picked the seven winning numbers in a massive 183-million-euro draw.
The jackpot had rolled over for 11 weeks, the maximum allowed, and according to the lottery's rules it was distributed to the 20 players who picked the five winning numbers and one of the two bonus numbers.
Since EuroMillions was launched in 2004, the overall record holder is Irish mother-of-six Dolores McNamara, who pocketed a cool 115 436 126 euros in July 2005.
The world lottery record is held by the United States which had a lottery jackpot of $363m in May 2000.
- AFP
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