Spanish Christmas lottery pays out billions

Dec 23, 2011, 12:27 pm (19 comments)

El Gordo

Days before Christmas, a tiny town of 2,000 in cash-strapped Spain found itself richer by €720 million (US$940 million) Thursday after scooping the top prize in the nation's famed Christmas lottery.

Billed as the world's richest, the lottery dishes out some €2.52 billion (US$3.29 billion) to winners across the nation.

The top prize — dubbed "El Gordo" (The Fat One) — was split among the holders of tickets bearing the number 58268. The number appeared on 1,800 tickets, giving winners €400,000 for their €20 ticket.

The state lottery agency said all 1,800 tickets with that number were sold in the town of Granen, located in the arid and barren northeastern Los Monegros area.

The news brought the town's residents out onto the street to dance, sing, hug each other and spray sparkling wine all over.

"It's brilliant!" Pilar Azagra, who runs the town's lottery store, told Spanish National Television. She appeared a bit stunned.

"I haven't had time to react, the number came out and then people started flocking to the shop," she said, adding that many in her family had bought €20 tickets.

Azagra said the windfall was more than welcome as several companies in Granen had closed because of the economic crisis forcing many residents to seek employment in neighboring towns and cities.

Spain is struggling to emerge from a near two-year recession that has left it with a eurozone-high 21.5 percent unemployment rate.

The Gordo lottery aims for a share-the-wealth system, rather than a single jackpot, and thousands of numbers yield at least some kind of return. Lots of people chip in together and buy shares of several or many tickets, meaning it is common for multiple prizes to go to the same town.

Other lotteries have larger individual top prizes but El Gordo is ranked as the world's richest for the total sum paid out.

The winning number was picked and announced by pupils of Madrid's Saint Ildefonso School in a nationally televised draw.

Since it began in 1812, the Dec. 22 lottery has become a favorite holiday tradition. This year, it sold an estimated €2.7 billion in tickets and the state lottery agency estimated per-capita spending of about €70.

Spain holds another big lottery Jan. 6 to mark the Feast of the Epiphany. It is known as "El Nino" (The Child), in reference to the baby Jesus.

News story photo(Click to display full-size in gallery)

Thanks to TheRightPrice for the tip.

AP

Comments

LottoGuyBC's avatarLottoGuyBC

El Gordo Smash

winwi5

Wow that's got to be and exciting feeling 1800 tickets so just imagine if someone purchased like 10 of those tickets and they are worth $400K. I feel like when the  powerball and the mega millions jackpot hit $200- $300 million dollars it should be like this that way this would give others a chance to win maybe not 1800 but at least 100 people but us lotteries don't want to do that because they are greedy they are scared that if this happens the lottery sales will decrease because people will already have won money.

gocart1's avatargocart1

OK...So now i know what my spanish friends were saying to me when they would call me "EL GORDO"....

Wait till i see them.....lol......HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL MY L/P FRIENDSPartyUS FlagPartyNoel

dpoly1's avatardpoly1

Quote: Originally posted by winwi5 on Dec 23, 2011

Wow that's got to be and exciting feeling 1800 tickets so just imagine if someone purchased like 10 of those tickets and they are worth $400K. I feel like when the  powerball and the mega millions jackpot hit $200- $300 million dollars it should be like this that way this would give others a chance to win maybe not 1800 but at least 100 people but us lotteries don't want to do that because they are greedy they are scared that if this happens the lottery sales will decrease because people will already have won money.

No Pity!just imagine if we had very large jackpots that 1 person could potentialy win ........... oh wait, we do & it works very well .........

Guest

does no one else find it strange that all 1800 tickets won in one town only?

This is what lotteries should do here.

rad242

Quote: Originally posted by on Dec 23, 2011

does no one else find it strange that all 1800 tickets won in one town only?

This is what lotteries should do here.

NO not strange if you understand how the game works. The ticket numbers are like SERIAL NUMBERS. Almost like buying scratch offs if you will. Think of it as a grand scale raffle concept

Cletu$2's avatarCletu$2

Maybe when our unemployment gets to 21.5% Mr Obama will let us have an El Gordo type of lottery so that we can afford to eat and buy essentials.

Starr920

Quote: Originally posted by dpoly1 on Dec 23, 2011

No Pity!just imagine if we had very large jackpots that 1 person could potentialy win ........... oh wait, we do & it works very well .........

IMO This is the way a huge $$$ lottery should be won - spread the $$$ around - DPoly, I know that's your dream but  the "whole one winner of a huge jackpot" is just selfish and greedy - especially with so many people in needSmash

time*treat's avatartime*treat

Tax free?

TnTicketlosers's avatarTnTicketlosers

Thats what I have been preaching about for years.Let many people win,not just one.They would have more people playing.I could use 5 Thousand right about now couldnt you?  So could alot more poor folks.i wish I run a State Lottery it would be the best in the country............Next to Georgia that is.

myturn's avatarmyturn

Other state lotteries should start a 'Fat One', it would be fun and raise much-needed revenue.

gogidolim

 El Gordo-type lottery makes more sense. To most people out there, even $100,000 will make a huge difference in their lives. Even better, it will change many people's lives. I'd rather see 1000 $100,000 winners than 1 $100,000,000 winner.

Starr920

No winner on last night's Mega Millions but 31 lucky players matched the first 5 numbers for a $250,000 prize: 5 from California, 1 from Connecticut, 1 from Georgia, 1 from Illinois, 1 from Indiana, 3 from Massachusetts, 3 from New Jersey, 5 from New York, 3 from Ohio, 2 from Tennessee, 3 from Texas, 1 from Virginia, 1 from Washington, and 1 from Wisconsin.

Now that's what I like to see - lots of second prize: winners will have an even happier holiday seasonHurray!

sully16's avatarsully16

Congrats to all the winners.

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