Society takes stock of the year: 187 Lotto millionaires celebrated in Germany

6 out of 49 or Eurojackpot: Germans spend billions every year hoping for great luck.

Society takes stock of the year: 187 Lotto millionaires celebrated in Germany

6 out of 49 or Eurojackpot: Germans spend billions every year hoping for great luck. The dream of a million came true for 187 people. Most new millionaires gather in a very specific state.

Nationwide, 187 lucky people became lottery millionaires last year. A year earlier it was 181. Last November, a Eurojackpot player from Berlin received the highest lottery win ever achieved in Germany of 120 million euros, as reported by the German Lotto and Totoblock (DLTB) in Hanover. A win of more than 110 million euros in the Eurojackpot went to North Rhine-Westphalia in May 2022. The third-highest prize of 45 million euros went to Hesse in April - in the lottery classic "6 out of 49".

In 2022, most of the millions in profits went to the most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia (45), followed by Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg (31 each) and Lower Saxony (15). A total of 7.97 billion euros was spent on lotteries last year - a slight increase of 0.9 percent compared to 2021.

There could have been one more lottery millionaire in Saxony-Anhalt. The lottery player had not reported within the three-year period, as Lotto-Toto Sachsen-Anhalt announced. The time expired on December 31 at 11:59 p.m.

"We hoped that someone else would get in touch. Unfortunately, there was no happy ending," said Lotto Managing Director Stefan Ebert. "The amount is now flowing back into the pot of nationwide special draws." With the Lotto 6aus49 lottery ticket, the prize of one million euros was achieved in December 2019 in the nationwide special Santa Claus draw.

In contrast, the new year started with problems for many lottery companies in Germany. Because of a cyber attack, lottery players in Brandenburg, for example, were unable to place a bet online on Tuesday. Alleged cyber criminals tried to access customer accounts over the turn of the year and on Monday. It was unclear how long the closure would last. Whether personal data was stolen from customers has not yet been clarified, said the spokeswoman for Lotto Brandenburg.

Lotto Schleswig-Holstein temporarily blocked access to its own website at the turn of the year due to suspected hacking. A spokesman said there were a striking number of automated log-in attempts between Christmas and New Year's Eve. Therefore, the area was preventively blocked from New Year's Eve until Monday noon. Lotto Rheinland-Pfalz had also temporarily blocked access to its own website due to conspicuous unauthorized access attempts. According to information from Monday, there were also problems in Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt.

(This article was first published on Wednesday, January 04, 2023.)