Can you help prove an Italian superstition Wrong?

In Italy we omit number 13 from the national lottery. We are convinced 13 brings bad luck. The level of clinginess to the conviction makes me mad. 13 brings bad luck. Yeah, right. Less numbers in a lottery means marginally higher probabilities to win and that is bad luck in Italy, because if you are Italian, you play the lottery to enjoy good luck, not to win money. It's only natural that we do everything in our superstition to eliminate "bad luck" from the game!!

To prove the myth wrong, the government could change lottery rules and require that the winning combination always includes number 13. If you are worried Italians may lose their sleep when they buy a lottery ticket with the number 13 in it, well they will, for a few minutes, and then go right back to dreaming they are the ones to win the lottery.

Don't take too seriously my suggestions if you are not superstitious yourself. In the absence of number 13 in the lottery, however, the government should consider announcing winning tickets on the 13 of every month or make Friday the 13 the day when multi-million-euro jackpot tickets are drawn.

If people start spreading fantasies that those lucky jackpot winners had a tragic fate later in life the government can threaten that if people continue to spread such stories they will be the ones to win the next jackpot!

That's a threat no Italian can easily ignore. If the threat is dismissed, it means people agree to be bought off by the government and Italians are known to have a very bad relationship with bribery and corruption to the point that they perfectly resist to it by totally yielding to it. If they pay notice to the threat, well they won't, because what sane Italian will ever refuse millions of euros in order to say that he doesn't believe the superstition is true.

Arguably then, the most powerful threat the government can make in order to put the superstition to the test is to choose everything in relation to the lottery in terms of number 13. As I've said, jackpot total winnings can have number 13 in them, they can always be announced on the 13 of every month with a preference for Fridays, and whoever is really against that, is welcome to be the lottery's winner and then refuse to take the money if they actually believe in the true power of the superstition...

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