The Unique Traditions Behind The El Gordo Lottery
The El Gordo (The Fat One) Christmas lotto is the most traditional lotto game in Spain with the vast percentage of the country’s inhabitants taking part. In fact, this draw has grown to be a national diversion with 98% of Spain’s inhabitants playing. This is not really unexpected when you hear that the El Gordo lottery is the largest prize fund lotto game worldwide.
The typical Spaniard spends about €73 in the Christmas draw and in 2008 the prize fund is expected to exceed 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 outstanding 1 in 6 likelihood of grabbing a cash prize.
• All prizes are paid out right away and are free of tax for Spanish residents.
• 70% of the revenue generated by ticket sales is paid out in prizes.
Ever since December 1812 this Spanish National Lottery has followed exactly the same procedure every year. Two huge circular containers are used; one of them contains tens of thousands of small wooden balls representing all ticket numbers; the other one contains a smaller quantity of wooden balls representing the prizes to be drawn. In the Lotería Nacional hall in Madrid, pupils of the San Ildefonso School (formerly reserved for orphans of public servants) draw the numbers and corresponding prizes, singing the results audibly in front of the public while Spanish radio and television stations transmit the occasion.
Due to the considerable quantity of numbers and prizes, this procedure takes about 3 hours to complete. In recent years, over 4,800 individual numbers have collected at least €1,000 per billete (€100 per décimo) in the Christmas draw. Those individuals who are not fortunate enough to win a cash prize often make the predictable remark that “it’s health that really matters”. Players who only win their entry fee back will often re-invest the prize in a ticket for El Niño, the second most important draw, which takes place on the 6th of January each year.
The two container system is the traditional method of drawing the numbers in Spanish lotteries but this method is now set aside solely for the famous Christmas lottery draw. The remainder of the weekly draws as well as the five other yearly El Gordo draws utilize five containers with 10 balls in each, from where the winning numbers are picked.
Lotto outlets in Spain typically only sell tickets for one or two numbers, so the winners of the biggest prizes frequently live in the same city or district or work for the same company. In 2005, the winning number was sold in the town of Vic in Catalonia (population 37,825), whose inhabitants scooped in the region of €500 million.
Historically, you could only participate in the El Gordo lottery if you were a citizen of Spain. However, with the introduction of lottery ticket sales agents you now have the opportunity to take part in this internationally renowned Spanish lottery regardless of where you reside around the world. Some global El Gordo syndicates have also been introduced to not only allow more people access to this lottery but to boost their probability of winning cash prizes also.
In: El Gordo · Tagged with: El Gordo, el gordo lottery
