FELTRE. He scratched the colored patina of his “Maxi Billionaire” coupons right there at the station Buffet, where he had just bought them. And, incredulous, she had to ask the staff to check and confirm that she was right: on one of her twenty euro scratch cards the winning combination of five million euro appeared.
The sensational win, the highest ever achievable with an instant play and the highest achieved in Feltre in living memory, was scored on Saturday in the historic local railway station. The winner was a woman, who had bought two or three coupons for the “Maxi Billionaire”, at a price of twenty euros each.
At the Buffet of the station the owners and staff do not let any details about who made the win be leaked. But no one hides the satisfaction for such a substantial win – equivalent to the first prize of the Italy lottery – that he returns to kiss Feltre at just twelve years old from the two million euros won in July 2009 with a “scratch card”. As it happens, even that time bought right at the Buffet of the station run by the Favero family.
“It is a great satisfaction for us and for those who physically sold the ticket, because it is nice that every now and then there is good news, that a dream comes true”, underlines Mariangela Favero, who together with her husband Luca Calcagno for a couple of years years he took over the management of the Buffet, renovating the interiors and bringing it to its current appearance.
The coupons of the “Maxi billionaire” series, despite the rather substantial price, are highly appreciated by the Buffet’s customers and represent a consolidated offer in the station room. Winnings do not always come to light, because there are those who buy scratch cards and take them away to play at home. The lucky customer on Saturday, on the other hand, wanted to scratch the coupons directly in the room, discovering with emotion the maxi win.
«July is obviously our lucky month», smiles Mariangela Favero, «also in 2009 the scratch card worth two million euros was sold this month». That time it was an immigrant who brought home two million euros, with a coupon from the series “The treasure of the pharaoh” bought for ten euros, again at the Buffet of the station. At the time, that was the maximum payout that could be achieved with an instant lottery coupon.
The years have passed, the maximum winnings have risen to five million but once again the highest sum has arrived at the station.
Of course, there will be taxes to be paid on the winnings, but the one that will remain in the hands of the winner will still be a respectable figure. “It takes news like this every now and then, to be able to dream a little,” they explain to the Buffet, where there was no lack of toast to celebrate the win.
Now the ball passes to the lucky winner, who has two ways to collect the five million euros: either go directly to Rome to the national lottery awards office to present the lucky coupon to collect, oryes at a branch of the Intesa San Paolo bank, which has an agreement with the State Monopolies.
The procedures, they explain to the Feltre office, are of two types, for winnings below or above 10 thousand euros.
In the case of larger winnings, the holder of the ticket – which is not registered and therefore is in fact “bearer” – must make an appointment at the bank where it is registered in the registry. The ticket is then held by the bank, which issues a copy to the winner, and is sent to its dedicated office in the Rome office, which is responsible for verifying the correspondence of the coupon codes and then issues the payment order by bank transfer.
“Usually a month is foreseen for the procedure”, they explain from the bank, “but in practice the times are faster, around two weeks”.
The times are much faster, however, for winnings under 10 thousand euros if, it is pointed out by the credit institution, the merchants register the Iban code of the lucky customer directly on the terminal. In that case, in two days, the amount won is transferred to the current account of the lucky customer.
In terms of statistics, the probability of achieving the maximum win of 5 million is very rare: in the “Maxi Billionaire” it is one winning ticket for every 9 million 600 thousand.