The Italian Lottery remains a symbolic event at the beginning of the year: from the TV of the 80s and 90s to the record numbers of 2025, between tradition and current affairs
In Italy, the beginning of the year has for decades had a small shared ritual that does not claim centrality, but resists with discretion: the Italian Lottery. Not an event capable of marking the daily life of Italians, but a recognizable, seasonal habit, linked to holidays and above all to television. A simple gesture – buy a ticket, check it on January 6th – which crosses generations without ever becoming all-encompassing.
A television tradition rather than a social one
The cultural weight of the Italian Lottery has been built above all through generalist TV. In the 1980s and 1990s, the draw was an integral part of the Rai party schedule, linked to the large variety shows on Saturday evenings. Programs like Fantastic they transformed the Lottery into a family event, followed without particular pathos but with a widespread familiarity, the result of an era in which television still had a unifying role.
In the nineties the bond was further strengthened with the variety show, culminating in 1999 with Carràmba! How luckywhen the final draw reached the ratings of a major national event. That was probably the moment of maximum popular exposure of the Lottery: not so much as a game, but as a television setting of an Italy that found itself in front of the same screen.
Over the years, the symbolic weight has shrunk together with the centrality of generalist TV. The Italian Lottery has not disappeared, but has adapted. Today it lives above all in the game show format, combined with Your businesswhich accompanies the final draw on January 6th. A more everyday, less solemn context, which reflects well its current role: no longer an essential collective event, but a seasonal custom.
The numbers of 2025: a loyalty that holds up
If the cultural weight has been reduced, the numerical weight shows a surprising fidelity. In view of the draw on 6 January 2026, tickets sold for the 2025 Italian Lottery are moving towards quota 9.5 millionwith an increase of 10% compared to the previous edition. A figure that is growing compared to 6.7 million in 2023 and to 8.6 million in 2024which confirms that the habit has not disappeared at all.
There Lombardy confirms itself among the most involved regions. In the 2024 edition, tickets sold were 1,303,440with a growth of 29% on the previous year. Milan led the ranking with 583,750 ticketsfollowed by Brescia with over 153,000. There is no shortage of stories linked to the so-called “lucky places” either: at the Autogrill Somaglia Ovest, where the winning 5 million euro ticket was sold in 2024, there is talk of up to 350 tickets sold in a single dayfueling an imagination that remains more symbolic than statistical.
December, thirteenth and adult audiences
The peak of sales continues to be concentrated in December. Tobacconists describe a predominantly adult audience, often over 40, who buys tickets as a ritual gesture rather than as a real investment. The thirteenth, the holidays, the end-of-year climate remain decisive factors. It is a sober participation, far from the dynamics of compulsive gambling.
Special prizes, forgotten prizes
The 2025 edition also introduces a special single prize of 300 thousand eurosdrawn live on January 6th before the main prizes were awarded. A way to renew the wait without distorting the format.
However, a curious and constant fact remains: unclaimed prizes. In the latest edition, further 1.2 million euros of final prizes have not been collected, to which are added approximately 130 thousand euros of forgotten daily rewards. From 2002 to today, the overall figure exceeds 32 million euros. A detail that speaks well of the nature of the Italian Lottery: often purchased by tradition, not always followed carefully to the end.
The Italian Lottery today does not define the identity of Italians, nor does it claim to do so. It is rather a small rite of passage, a gentle residue of generalist TV, a custom that resurfaces every January and then disappears for another year. This is no small thing, in a country where many traditions have completely dissolved. And it is perhaps precisely this small, unobtrusive size that allows it to resist.
