It may be the luckiest lottery booth in the world. It's certainly one of the most popular. In the heart of Istanbul's historic Eminonu district, the Nimet Abla lottery kiosk is so renowned for producing winners it has become a magnet for punters.
People travel from well beyond the city limits to snap up a ticket. Others make proxy purchases, posting the slips to friends and relatives in other cities. Such is the kiosk's reputation that it sells 10 per cent of the lotto tickets in Turkey. Demand from all over the country as well as from abroad is so high that the firm started online sales last year.
Melek Nimet Ozden founded the kiosk, lending it both her name and her luck. Nimet Abla ("Big sister Nimet") started selling lottery tickets in 1928, and after she won the lottery in 1931 her shop earned nationwide fame.
The kiosk generates winners most weeks, though that now may be down to the sheer numbers of people who buy from it.
Ayhan Karagul has been working at the kiosk for six years and plays the lotto - so far without any luck. "Of course I am happy when our tickets win," he says. According to him, about 25 of the 32 monthly lottery draws generate at least a three-digit win for tickets bought at Nimet Abla, and almost every year since 1988 a share of the new year's jackpot goes to a ticket sold there. "It's statistics." Karagul says. "We sell so many tickets that there is always at least one that wins something."
Not everyone approves. Abdurrahman Yildiz, an ice-cream seller at a stand next door, does not condone his famous neighbour: "According to our religion, money has to be earned, not won."
