Italy's lottery officials did not name the person who had correctly picked the six numbers in Wednesday's Super Enalotto but said the winning ticket had been bought in a bar in the northern Italian town of Veduggio con Colzano, near Milan.

The day before the six-number draw, ticket sales in Italy had been up 25 percent from a week ago as lottery fever reached fever pitch after 44 draws without a winner.

The mania reached overseas too with foreigners roping in Italy-based friends to buy tickets on their behalf or even crossing the border in buses to hazard a shot at the riches.

Italians love playing numbers in local lotteries all over the country, including many illegal numbers rackets in the south.

The Super Enalotto ticket requires a minimum investment of one euro, with the chances of winning about one in 622 million.

It has become such an obsession that critics, who fear addicts are running into debt, have called for changes like having an upper limit on the top jackpot.

But on Wednesday night, the hunt was on for Italy's new millionaire -- the first Super Enalotto victor since February -- to find out what he or she will do with the cash.

"I wouldn't tell anybody because you would risk someone kidnapping a member of your family -- it's a problem," one Italian Marco D'Anna said. (US$1=.8862 Euro)