El Gordo holds annual Christmas drawing, awarding billions

Dec 22, 2017, 10:40 am (9 comments)

El Gordo

MADRID, Spain — People lucky enough to hold tickets with the number 71198 were blessed with thousands of euros in prize money in Spain's bumper Christmas lottery Friday.

Children from Madrid's San Ildefonso school called out the top prize number three hours after the much-followed, nationally televised draw began around 9 a.m. (0800 GMT) at Madrid's Teatro Real opera house.

The lottery, known as El Gordo, or The Fat One, will dish out 2.4 billion euros (US$2.8 billion) in prizes this year.

Despite the huge amount of money awarded, nobody gets ultra-rich from El Gordo. It is called a lottery, but is actually more akin to a raffle, in which the prize money is spread out amount thousands of winning tickets.

Still, El Gordo, held each Dec. 22, is described by many as the "world's richest" due to the total prize-money involved.

The top prize per winning ticket is 400,000 euros (US$473,000) and there are several smaller prizes too.

Each ticket — costing 20 euros — is typically not sold as one unit. Tickets are broken into ten parts, called Decimos, sold for 2 euros each. So one decima that wins the top prize would be worth 40,000 euros.

People traditionally chip in together and buy shares of several or many tickets among friends, families or workmates in one of the most popular Christmas customs in Spain.

Lines form outside lottery booths weeks ahead of the draw and people tune in across all media to find out if they are among the lucky ones in a draw that dates back to 1812.

Spain set up its national lottery as a charity in 1763, during the reign of King Carlos III, but later its objective shifted toward filling state coffers.

Organizers said ticket sales totaled 2.8 billion euros (US$3.3 billion) this year, up 3 percent from last year.

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

Lottery Post Staff

Comments

noise-gate

Which begs the question, when is the MUSL going to follow suit, and reward the players on this side of the pond?

music*'s avatarmusic*

  I am very happy with both Mega Millions and Power Ball and their potential to reach a billion dollar jackpot each. Many times per year.

 Many players are waiting for them to reach this level and then join in the fun. When you think what $2.00 can bring you then you will celebrate.

 We do have to factor in lottery fatigue which is when players expect higher and higher jackpots. 

Good Luck!US Flag

Sosaman66

Doesn't a ticket cost 200 Euro and a Decimo cost 20 Euro?

rcbbuckeye's avatarrcbbuckeye

Quote: Originally posted by noise-gate on Dec 22, 2017

Which begs the question, when is the MUSL going to follow suit, and reward the players on this side of the pond?

Hopefully never. If I want to play for $400,000 then I play a game (Texas 2 Step) that pays that when it rolls. I play MM and PB because I want to play for millions. 

Why is it every year the whining starts about MUSL doing the same thing as Spain? MUSL tried that when they rolled out the Monopoly Millionaire game. It failed spectacularly.

ckrakowski

Children from Madrid's San Ildefonso school called out the top prize number three hours after the much-followed, nationally televised draw began around 9 a.m.

 

 

Why did it take so long to announce the numbers??

noise-gate

Quote: Originally posted by rcbbuckeye on Dec 22, 2017

Hopefully never. If I want to play for $400,000 then I play a game (Texas 2 Step) that pays that when it rolls. I play MM and PB because I want to play for millions. 

Why is it every year the whining starts about MUSL doing the same thing as Spain? MUSL tried that when they rolled out the Monopoly Millionaire game. It failed spectacularly.

This is my very first whine rcb, so l can't be lumped with all the others, who constantly do.Big Smile

Sosaman66

Quote: Originally posted by ckrakowski on Dec 22, 2017

Children from Madrid's San Ildefonso school called out the top prize number three hours after the much-followed, nationally televised draw began around 9 a.m.

 

 

Why did it take so long to announce the numbers??

Because the kids draw a total of 1,807 numbers:

  • 1 ball for the first prize.
  • 1 ball for the second prize.
  • 1 ball for the third prize.
  • 2 balls for the fourth prizes.
  • 8 balls for the fifth prizes.
  • 1,794 balls for the small prizes, called  la Pedrea, literally "the pebble-avalanche" or "stoning".

that takes a while to do lol

dpoly1's avatardpoly1

Quote: Originally posted by rcbbuckeye on Dec 22, 2017

Hopefully never. If I want to play for $400,000 then I play a game (Texas 2 Step) that pays that when it rolls. I play MM and PB because I want to play for millions. 

Why is it every year the whining starts about MUSL doing the same thing as Spain? MUSL tried that when they rolled out the Monopoly Millionaire game. It failed spectacularly.

I Agree!

100%

ckrakowski

Quote: Originally posted by Sosaman66 on Dec 22, 2017

Because the kids draw a total of 1,807 numbers:

  • 1 ball for the first prize.
  • 1 ball for the second prize.
  • 1 ball for the third prize.
  • 2 balls for the fourth prizes.
  • 8 balls for the fifth prizes.
  • 1,794 balls for the small prizes, called  la Pedrea, literally "the pebble-avalanche" or "stoning".

that takes a while to do lol

Thank you. I thought it was just one number they pulled.

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