This year 2.32 billion Euro will be given in prizes
December 22nd is the day of the year when the Spanish people are, from nine in the morning, with one ear pegged to the radio or television as the world famous Christmas Lottery, ‘El Gordo’ – The Fat One, takes place.
Tickets usually sold in tenth parts called decimos, are held tightly in hand with each member of the public considering that certain numbers to be more attractive than others, and certain last numbers as their favourite.
For example the favourite terminations are 3,5,and 7 while the numbers which have most appeared over the history of the lottery are 5,4,and 6.
This form of lottery was declared to be modern when sold for the first time on March 4th 1812 in Cádiz, to differentiate it from the earlier draw in Spain which dates from 1763. The first Christmas draw was also held in 1812 when a ticket cost 40 reales and the first prize was 8,000 pesos Fuertes.
The hall where the draw takes place opens its doors at 8am so that anyone can check the wooden balls, each one of them with a single and possibly winning number etched upon it. This year, the draw will not be held at the usual address on Calle Guzmán el Bueno, as it has been since 1963, but in the Palacio de Congresos, allowing 500 more members of the public to be admitted, taking the number up to 2,000.
Other changes mean that those lucky enough to win a prize that is greater than 3,000 € will be able to collect their winnings the next day.
The average Spaniard has spent just under 70 € on the draw, only slightly less than last year despite the economic crisis. Much of this is spent in smaller ‘participaciones’ arranged in their workplace or among clubs and friends.
As there are only 85,000 numbers on the tickets, there are also many series of tickets with the same number, and as a single number is often limited geographically by its sale one of the most exciting aspects of the Spanish draw is that lady luck can make several people from the same town or village into multi millionaires at the same time.
This year there are 195 series, each one with 85,000 tickets, numbered from 000000 to 84,999 and each ticket has 10 decimos. Each decimo costs 20 €, and a complete number 39,000 €.
The most popular number this year was 11710, the date of Spain’s historic victory in the World Cup, which was sold out in a matter of hours. Others include 11555, the moment at 115 minutes and 55 seconds into the game when Andrés Iniesta scored Spain’s winning goal, and the tennis player Rafael Nadal’s date of birth, 03686.
70% of the money taken goes on prizes, the rest on administration and to the treasury. Top prize for a tenth of a ticket is 300,000 € in each of the 195 series. 2.32 billion € will be given in prizes this year.
Some provinces of Spain have never won the first prize in the Christmas Draw – they are Zamora, Salamanca, Ávila, Tarragona, Huelva and the two autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla.
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Source: typicallyspanish.com
