The World Famous El Gordo Lottery Draw
The El Gordo (The Fat One) Christmas lotto is the most traditional lotto draw in Spain with the large percentage of the country’s residents taking part. In fact, this draw has grown to be a national diversion with 98% of Spain’s population partaking. This is not really unexpected when you hear that the El Gordo lottery is the biggest prize fund lotto game worldwide.
The average Spaniard spends about €73 in the Christmas draw and in 2008 the prize fund is likely to surpass a massive €2.20 billion. Here are a number of major features of the El Gordo lottery:
· In excess of 13,000 prizes are paid out.
· It is operated by the Spanish Government.
· There is an exceptional 1 in 6 probability of grabbing a cash prize.
· All prizes are paid out straight away and are tax-free for Spanish residents.
· 70% of total ticket sales are paid out in prize money.
Since December 1812 this Spanish lottery game has operated in precisely the same manner year on year. Two large circular containers are used; one of them contains 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 in Madrid, students of the San Ildefonso School (previously reserved for orphans of public servants) draw the numbers and corresponding prizes, singing the results out loud in front of the public while Spanish radio and television stations transmit the occasion.
Due to the considerable amount of numbers and prizes, this process takes approximately three hours to finish. In recent years, more than 4,800 individual numbers have won no less than €1,000 per billete (€100 per décimo) in the Christmas draw. Those who do not win time and again come out with the typical comment that “it’s health that really matters”. Players who just win their entry fee back will regularly re-invest the prize in a ticket for El Niño, the second most significant draw, held on January the 6th every year.
The two vessel system is the traditional way of drawing the numbers in Spanish lotteries but this method is now set aside exclusively for the celebrated Christmas lottery draw. The rest of the weekly and 5 other yearly El Gordo draws operate using five vessels with ten balls in each, from where the winning numbers are pulled out.
Lotto shops in Spain generally only sell tickets for one or two numbers, so the winners of the biggest prizes often reside in the same town or district or work for the same firm. In 2005, the winning number was sold in the town of Vic in Catalonia (population 37,825), whose citizens scooped in the region of €500 million.
Historically, you could only participate in the El Gordo if you were a citizen of Spain. However, with the introduction of lottery ticket sales agents you now have the chance to participate in this world famous Spanish national lottery regardless of where you reside around the world. Some international El Gordo syndicates have also been established to not only allow more people access to this lottery but to improve their probability of winning cash prizes as well.
€2.6 BILLION EUROS-THE FAT ONE- WORLDS BIGGEST LOTTERY DRAW
