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Spain's Christmas lottery is still "El Gordo"News Story
In tough times, Spaniards trim trees, not their lottery ticket purchases Includes video report On the morning of Dec. 22, Spain will be glued to radios and TV sets. A monotonous chant of children's voices will float through the air of homes, cafeterias and offices for hours. It is the lyrical event of the season, a kickoff to Christmas celebrations. Children dressed up in navy blue and gray uniforms sing, not Christmas carols, but the winning numbers and prizes for the Loteria de Navida
Dec 18, 2009, 8:11 am - Lottery News

Italian villager wins record $210M lottery jackpotNews Story
A resident of the castle-topped Tuscan village of Bagnone won more than 147 million (US$210.6 million) in Europe's biggest lottery jackpot, and seemed intent on trying to stay unknown. The winner bought the ticket for 2 at a bar in the central Italian town of 2,000, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) northwest of Florence. The lucky inhabitant, who has yet to come forward, can choose to remain anonymous and has 90 days to claim the cash. Local residents popped bottles of sparkling wine at the
Aug 25, 2009, 3:04 pm - Lottery News

Winners share $3 billion in Spain's El Gordo lotteryNews Story
Economic woes eased for thousands in Spain on Monday as the Christmas lottery billed among the world's richest dished out some 2.32 billion (US$3.23 billion) in prizes. The top prize of the lottery dubbed El Gordo (The Fat One) went to holders of tickets bearing the number 32365 which appears on 1,950 tickets, each winning 300,000 (US$418,000). Thousands of others cashed in on runner-up prizes. The top number was sung out at just after noon Monday by pupils of Madrid's Saint Ildefonso Scho
Dec 23, 2008, 9:06 am - Lottery News

Tiny village hits El Gordo lottery jackpotNews Story
A remote Spanish farming village today became several million dollars richer after each of its 25 inhabitants won a share of the top prize in the world's biggest lottery, El Gordo. The church bells rang in Rebollo de Duero, in the central Spanish province of Soria, as the handful of farming families celebrated their good fortune. Soria is one of western Europe's most sparsely inhabited regions, with many villages abandoned completely by their inhabitants over the past half century. I d
Dec 23, 2006, 8:54 pm - Lottery News

Spain goes bullistic as big, fat lottery faces bald truthNews Story
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
Dec 20, 2006, 12:36 pm - Lottery News

Maryland Lottery to offer limited-run raffle-style gameNews Story
The Maryland Lottery will add a new and completely different type of game to its product mix on November 20th with the launch of Countdown to Millions, a $20 raffle-style game. Unlike other lottery and jackpot games, Countdown to Millions offers a limited number of tickets designed to be sold in their entirety prior to awarding prizes. The game differs from other lottery and jackpot games where the total number of possible combinations seldom, if ever, sells out. As we move into the hol
Nov 18, 2006, 7:53 pm - Lottery News

Lottery scammer busted by Border PatrolNews Story
A woman accused in Illinois and Florida scams and featured on the TV show America's Most Wanted was arrested in El Paso, Texas, a report said Wednesday. Maria Gomez, 49, was among 16 illegal aliens U.S. Border Patrol agents detained when they were spotted crossing a river near the U.S.-Mexican border. The high-profile arrest occurred Monday evening when Border Patrol agents witnessed a group of people crossing the river four miles from the Zaragoza Bridge, trying to sneak into the Unite
Apr 26, 2006, 6:50 pm - Lottery News

Penn. Lottery declares 1st raffle a successNews Story
State lotteries are beginning to learn from the success of El Gordo, a raffle-style game, which is one of the most popular lottery games in the world.The Pennsylvania Lottery had a Merry Christmas again.But this time, aside from the usual seasonal sales peak in instant tickets, thousands of players also took a $20 chance to get in the Lottery's first-ever raffle game: a one-time drawing for a declared set of prizes, with winning numbers drawn specifically from the field of tickets sold.Some $4
Jan 9, 2006, 7:30 am - Lottery News

Californians targeted by Spanish lottery scamNews Story
Imagine receiving a letter in the mail that you're the big winner of a lottery in Spain. If it sounds too good to be true, that's probably because it is.This scam is known as the El Gordo lottery, meaning fat one . But the only ones fattening their wallets are the criminals behind it.It's a letter that seemed too good to be true to News 8's assistant news director Dean Elwood. $600,000 ... who wouldn't want that, he said.And according to this notice claiming to be from the El Gordo Spani
Nov 30, 2005, 1:21 pm - Lottery News

Massachusetts lottery ticket recycling program successfulNews Story
A program for recycling non-winning lottery tickets is paying off big for Westboro, Mass.-based recycler E.L. Harvey Sons and the Massachusetts State Lottery. Instant Re-Play, the lottery's anti-litter program that rewards individuals that collect and recycle non-winning instant or scratch tickets, has yielded 50 tons of tickets.The recycled tickets are converted into paper goods, such as tissue, toilet paper and napkins, according to Ellen Harvey, executive vice president of E.L. Harvey So
Jul 20, 2005, 1:00 pm - Lottery News