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About El Gordo The Spanish Christmas Lottery ‘El Gordo de Navidad’ works differently to most lotteries in the world as it is run along the lines of a traditional raffle where a ticket is bought with a number already printed on it. Simply match the number on the ticket to the one that is drawn and you win 1st prize... seems easy enough! Well, not that easy because firstly there are 85000 different numbers which make up a whole ticket ‘billete’, each ‘billete’ is available in 185 ‘'series’ - that is, 185 lots of the same number. (and each ‘serie’ is allocated a prize fund of €3.000,000), then each ‘billete’ is divided into ten ‘décimos’ (tenths). So when buying your tickets you have the choice of buying a single décimo, a whole ticket, or a fraction of your choice. If you don't buy the whole ticket and someone else buys the rest of it you will share the prize with them. For example, if you buy two décimos, someone else buys three and another buys five and if your ticket wins 1,000€, then you will win 200€, 300€ and 500€ respectively! So:
With over €3 billion in the pot theres a lot of money available and all the prizes are tax-free! Even after the Spanish government have taken their portion this still leaves an incredible €2.142 Billion for prizes. A lot of money for prizes but then El gordo has a lot of prizes... 13,334 different prizes to be exact which gives you about a 1 in 3 chance of winning a prize! Here is a list of the ‘principal’ prizes.
On the morning of the 22nd of December each year Spain grinds to a halt and the normal noise and chatter is replaced by the sound of children singing... Why? Since December 18, 1812, the Christmas Lottery (El Gordo de Navidad) draw is held according to exactly the same procedure each year. Two big spherical vessels are used. One of them contains several tens of thousands of small wooden balls, representing all ticket numbers. The other one contains fewer wooden balls, representing the prizes to be drawn. In the Lotería Nacional hall of Madrid, pupils of the San Ildefonso school (formerly reserved for orphans of public servants) draw the numbers and corresponding prizes, singing the results aloud in front of the public, whilst being broadcast live on television and radio. Due to the sheer quantity of numbers and prizes, this procedure takes about 3 hours. Over the course of the morning prizes and their corresponding numbers are drawn and as the 1st prize, ‘El Gordo’, is not necessarily the 1st number drawn this means the excitement lasts longer, and as the tension grows the crowd start chanting ‘gordo! gordo!’ In recent years, more than 4,800 individual numbers won at least €1,000 per billete (€100 per décimo). The Spanish Christmas Lottery, ‘El Gordo’ or ‘The Fat One’, is recognised as the biggest lottery in the world and also one of the oldest. Having started in December 1812, There are now several ‘El Gordo’ lottery draws each year. A summer draw (14th July) was introduced in 2000, now with additional draws giving 6 draws a year. The prizes are still enormous but the tradition surrounding the Christmas draw ensures it remains the most popular. |
