22nd Dec 2024 @ 9:46 am

Christmas has started in earnest in Spain this morning with the draw for the world’s biggest lottery, El Gordo.

Throughout the country, Spaniards will tune into TVE1, the main state channel, to watch well-scrubbed children from a Madrid orphanage selecting numbered wooden balls from a giant golden cage, before calling the numbers out to the public in a strange sing-song style. This goes on all morning.

At some point, El Gordo (the big prize) will be drawn, and 170 tickets will win €4 million each. As ticket numbers are often concentrated in the same place, this means entire villages or neighbourhoods share the winnings. News reporters race to the lucky places to get photos of delighted residents popping the corks on bottles of cava and celebrating. 

El Gordo is the biggest lottery in the world, with more than €3 billion of prizes, and a one in six chance of a winning ticket, but despite its size, big prizes are rare. That’s because each ticket costs €200, and is usually split into ten decimos, which are sold or shared among friends.  

Some years ago, one of the winning decimo tickets was sold in Arrecife, bringing €400,000 to some lucky islander.

You can watch the draw live here:

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