[size=-1] Grief or no grief, many Italian lottery addicts are looking to the late Pope John Paul for their lucky number.[/size][size=-1]Across the Roman Catholic country, punters are rushing to lotto sellers and gambling on numbers linked to the Polish Pontiff in the belief those digits are now lucky, a betting news agency said. [/size]
[size=-1] "Since this morning there are many, many bets on the numbers of the Pope," the agency, AGICOS, said. [/size]
[size=-1]The most popular numbers are 21 and 37, corresponding to the time of death (21:37 local), the number 2 after the day of the Pope's death on April 2, and 84, his age at death.[/size]
[size=-1] Italians have long been dedicated gamblers and in 2004 they spent 23 billion euros ($30 billion) on betting games, up 38 percent from 2003. [/size]
[size=-1] Punters have also been putting money down on who will succeed John Paul as pope. Italian Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi is the favorite according to both an Irish bookmaker and a U.S. betting Web site.[/size]
[size=-1]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=573&e=550405
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[size=-1] "Since this morning there are many, many bets on the numbers of the Pope," the agency, AGICOS, said. [/size]
[size=-1]The most popular numbers are 21 and 37, corresponding to the time of death (21:37 local), the number 2 after the day of the Pope's death on April 2, and 84, his age at death.[/size]
[size=-1] Italians have long been dedicated gamblers and in 2004 they spent 23 billion euros ($30 billion) on betting games, up 38 percent from 2003. [/size]
[size=-1] Punters have also been putting money down on who will succeed John Paul as pope. Italian Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi is the favorite according to both an Irish bookmaker and a U.S. betting Web site.[/size]
[size=-1]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=573&e=550405
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