Italy starts on Monday with a ticket lottery. Shops, restaurants, and bars can issue receipts that customers can use to enter a lottery. This is intended to offer customers an incentive to have a valid receipt issued when paying the bill.
Anyone wishing to take part in this game of chance in Italy must obtain a lottery code from the www.lotteriadegliscontrini.gov.it website, which must be presented when making payments. Customers can take part in the weekly, monthly and annual drawings and win money. The monthly draws start on March 11th, the weekly draws from June.
A combination of numbers is printed on the receipt, which can become the lucky number in the weekly and monthly draws. The main prizes for the winners are 25,000 to 100,000 euros. At the end of the year, a main prize of 5 million euros will be paid out, which is even tax-free.
The prospect of a possible lottery win should motivate many customers to insist on receiving a receipt when paying. Although this has been a legal requirement in Italy for decades, it is often “forgotten” by business owners.
Cash payments are to be reduced
In order to take part in the ticket lottery, you have to download an app on your mobile phone, have an electronic identity card and specify the account to which the refund or the lottery winnings are to be transferred. The procedure is not considered to be easy, protested consumer protection associations.
The merchants' association Confcommercio complained that the lottery was starting at a difficult time for Italian retailers. Countless shops and restaurants are closed because of the corona pandemic. However, the Italian government insists on their plan. Among other things, it tries to reduce cash payments. This is to be done with the “Italia Cashless” program. This also includes the “cashback plan”, according to which consumers have been getting part of their expenses back since December if they pay by card.
Other European countries have also tried a ticket lottery, including Portugal, Slovakia, Latvia and Lithuania.
