The Complexities Of The El Gordo Draw

Nov 22
17:17

2008

Gavin Evans

Gavin Evans

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This article attempts to point out some of the key characteristics of the legendary El Gordo Christmas lotto. These range from the sheer financial size of this Spanish lotto game to the particularly elaborate and complex ritual surrounding the draw itself.

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The El Gordo (The Fat One) Christmas lottery is the most long-established lotto draw in Spain with the large percentage of the country’s population participating.  Believe it or not,The Complexities Of The El Gordo Draw Articles this draw has turned out to be a national diversion with 98% of Spain’s population partaking.  This is not really surprising when you find out that the El Gordo is the largest prize fund lotto game in the world.
 
The average Spaniard spends about 73 Euros in the Christmas draw and in 2008 the prize fund is projected to exceed a wonderful €2.20 billion.  Here are a number of fundamental 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 excellent 1 in 6 likelihood of grabbing a cash prize.

• All prizes are paid out straight away and are free of tax for Spain's residents.

• 70% of the revenue generated by ticket sales is paid out in cash prizes.

Since December 1812 this Spanish lottery game has operated in precisely the same manner year on year.  Two large circular vessels are used; one of them contains tens of thousands of small wooden balls representing all ticket numbers; the other one contains a smaller number 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 out loud to the considerable on looking crowd while Spanish radio and television stations transmit the occasion. 

Due to the sheer quantity of numbers and prizes, this procedure takes roughly three hours.  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 often make the typical comment that "it's health that really matters". Participants who only get their money back will often re-invest the prize in a ticket for El Niño, the second most important draw, held on the 6th of January each year.

The two container routine is the time-honoured way of drawing the numbers in Spanish lotteries but this system is now set aside only for the legendary Christmas lotto draw.  The rest of the weekly and 5 other yearly El Gordo draws utilize five containers with 10 balls in each, from where the winning numbers are selected.

Lotto outlets in Spain usually only sell tickets for one or two numbers, so the winners of the largest prizes often live in the same city or neighbourhood or work for the same firm.  In 2005, the winning number was sold in the town of Vic in Catalonia (population 37,825), whose residents scooped in the region of €500 million.

For many years, you could only play 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 participate in this globally celebrated Spanish lottery regardless of where you reside around the world.  Some worldwide El Gordo syndicates have also been set up to not only allow more people access to this lotto but to improve their probability of winning cash prizes also.