Citizens of Bulgaria's neighboring countries have been coming to Bulgaria in order to play the Bulgarian State Lottery, "Toto", whose jackpot will surpass BGN 1,6 M on Sunday.

A number of Romanians, who usually come to Bulgaria’s Danube city of Ruse on shopping tours, have started to play the pools in the Bulgarian “Toto”.

Greeks, Turks, Serbs, and Macedonians in the border areas have also been lured by the chance to win BGN 1,6 M (over EUR 800 000) by playing a ticket worth as little as BGN 0,6 (EUR 0,3), the Bulgarian information agency BTA reported from around the country.

“There is a first time for everything. Our neighbors can participate in the games of the “Toto”. And we should be happy about that because 30% of the proceeds go to support the sports in Bulgaria,” said Damyan Damyanov, head of the Bulgarian Sports Totalizator, the organization running the lottery.

No case has been recorded so far of a foreigner winning the jackpot in the Bulgarian state lottery. The stations for buying the Toto tickets are located only on the territory of Bulgaria.

The “Toto” has three different games: 5 of 35 (people have to guess five numbers drawn out of 35), 6 of 42, and 6 of 49 which usually has the highest jackpots.

The Bulgarian state lottery recently made the world headlines when the same six numbers were drawn in two consecutive draws of the 6 of 42 game even though the chance of this happening is estimated at 1:4 200 000.