Spain goes bullistic as big, fat lottery faces bald truth

Comment #3

Jazi76 — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 19:55:17 GMT

MADRID, Spain (December 22, 2003) -- The world's richest lottery, Spain's El Gordo or the Fat One, was drawn on Monday. The lottery started informally in 1812 and became institutionalized, with the title of Christmas lottery, in 1892 and marks the official start of Spain's holiday season.

Three-quarters of the country's 40 million people reportedly participate in El Gordo.

ONLAE, the state lottery said tickets issued this year were worth $3.1 billion, and that 70%, or $2.2 billion, was desti... [ More ]

Comment #2

CA LotteryGuy — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 19:51:53 GMT

Does anyone know how this works? The article says people spend the equivalent of $100 US, is that in a number of tickets or just one? Also, how does one shop have most of the winners, is it just by luck of the draw or is it set uo that way? As there are only 85,000 tickets sold, is this a raffle type drawing? How much of the proceeds go to fund the winning tickets

Comment #1

Jazi76 — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 19:31:41 GMT

El Gordo has great odds. But $ 100 is quite expensive.

Spain goes bullistic as big, fat lottery faces bald truth

Lottery Post — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 17:36:00 GMT

The Bald One has left the Fat One. Now everyone's talking.

For the past eight years, Spaniards have been cajoled into buying lottery tickets in El Gordo (the Fat One) the world's richest annual lottery draw by advertisements featuring El Calvo (the Bald One), a silent, mysterious figure showering good fortune at random upon Spaniards as a symbol of the Fat One's beneficence.

But the Bald One, it seems, became too famous for his own good.

Despite being one of the best-known faces on... [ More ]