In the Spanish Christmas lottery “El Gordo” there is a total of 2.52 billion euros to be won. The top prize of €4 million is paid out 180 times.
The big drum with 100,000 wooden balls decides on the winners, the smaller one on the amount of the prizes.
(dpa) Two days before Christmas, the annual drawing of lucky numbers in the famous Spanish lottery «El Gordo» in the Teatro Real opera house in Madrid began. The attention of millions of viewers in front of the television watching the draw live is focused on the students on stage: they have been presenting the results – singing – since the 19th century.
A total of 2.52 billion euros are waiting for winners on Thursday. Most tickets are sold in Spain, but more and more foreigners are participating online.
The ceremony lasts up to four hours, as many smaller prizes are also drawn. The main prize, called “El Gordo” (the fat one), is four million euros for a whole ticket. It is paid out 180 times as each of the 100,000 ticket numbers is sold the same number of times.
Big total, small prices
The lottery, launched in Cádiz in 1812, is considered the oldest in the world and also the largest due to the total amount played. However, the individual winnings are not as dizzyingly high as in some other lotteries, but there are a lot of winners.
In Spain, the Christmas lottery is a huge event: Even people who are not otherwise interested in gambling often buy a ticket for the Christmas lottery from July onwards. Many buy a so-called décimo, a tenth ticket, for 20 euros. If such a ticket is won, a claim to one tenth of the price results.
There are two lottery drums. In the first, larger drum, there are 100,000 wooden balls with the ticket numbers, in the second, smaller one, 1,807 wooden balls with the winnings. During the draw, two balls from both drums fall into a glass bowl at the same time.