ElGordo - Why Participate In This Spanish Lotto With Its Enormous Payouts?

Have you ever heard of the Spanish El Gordo lottery?  If not, please permit me to explain a little about the world’s most well-known lottery and the reason it is called the El Gordo “The Big One”  The El Gordo lottery has been a national obsession in Spain since way back in December 1812 with enormous interest generated by the Christmas draw every year.  In fact, 98% of the population play this Spanish National lottery every Christmas.   There are several underlying reasons why so many Spanish people partake in the Christmas El Gordo draw.  Firstly, there is the incentive of the biggest lotto prize fund of any worldwide lottery game - 2.20 Billion Euros!  Secondly, there are in excess of 13,000 cash prizes on offer.  Lastly, the probability of scooping a cash prize in the Christmas draw are an excellent 1 in 6.      With the amount of attention that is paid to the Christmas El Gordo lottery draw, lots of individuals are oblivious to the fact that there are 5 more El Gordo draws every year as well.  These draws take place in January, March, May, July and November.  While these five draws don't exhibit the huge prize fund of the Christmas game, they are considerable nonetheless, ranging from 78 million Euros to 655 million Euros.  What's more, these games offer approximately 3 times as many prizes as the Christmas draw and odds of collecting a cash prize of a hugely achievable 1 in 3.   The Spanish Christmas Lottery works differently to the majority of other lottery games. A complete ticket 'billete' is very pricey, costing 200 Euros.  However, these tickets are split up into ten 'decimos' (tenths) each costing 20 Euros.  When acquiring your tickets you have the choice of purchasing a single decimo, a full ticket, or a portion of a ticket.  If you don't purchase the entire ticket, somebody else will purchase the remainder of your ticket.  For example, if you buy two decimos, somebody else buys three decimos and someone else buys five decimos and your ticket wins 1000 Euros, then you will secure 200 Euros, 300 Euros and 500 Euros correspondingly.  Owing to the price tag of purchasing a whole ticket, it is typical for families and friends to combine their lotto funds and each person purchase a separate 'decimo' (tenth).