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Christmas cheer for Spaniards
Source: Agencies |
December 23, 2010, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
SPAIN'S beloved Christmas lottery - known as "El Gordo" or "The Fat One" - spread 2.3 billion euros (US$3 billion) in holiday cheer yesterday in a country facing 20 percent unemployment.
The lottery, billed as the world's richest, has no single jackpot but rather a complex share-the-wealth system in which thousands of five-digit numbers running from 00000 to 84999 win at least something from the pot.
Prizes can range from 20 euros - in other words, you get back the money you spent on the ticket - to 300,000 euros.
The sweepstakes, which goes on for about three hours, ushers in the Christmas season in Spain. The lottery goes back to 1812 and many Spaniards spend the day glued to TV sets, radios and computer terminals to see if they are among the lucky ones.
People often team up to buy shares of tickets sold by bars, sports clubs and in offices.
Uniformed children from a Madrid school that used to be a home for orphans pick small wooden balls bearing the winning numbers and corresponding prizes out of two giant golden tumblers, and sing them out in a chant known to every Spaniard.
This year, the top prize - known, like the lottery itself, as "El Gordo" - went to number 79250. Tickets bearing that number were sold in the Madrid area, Barcelona, Alicante in the east and other cities ranging from the Basque region in the north to Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
The lottery, billed as the world's richest, has no single jackpot but rather a complex share-the-wealth system in which thousands of five-digit numbers running from 00000 to 84999 win at least something from the pot.
Prizes can range from 20 euros - in other words, you get back the money you spent on the ticket - to 300,000 euros.
The sweepstakes, which goes on for about three hours, ushers in the Christmas season in Spain. The lottery goes back to 1812 and many Spaniards spend the day glued to TV sets, radios and computer terminals to see if they are among the lucky ones.
People often team up to buy shares of tickets sold by bars, sports clubs and in offices.
Uniformed children from a Madrid school that used to be a home for orphans pick small wooden balls bearing the winning numbers and corresponding prizes out of two giant golden tumblers, and sing them out in a chant known to every Spaniard.
This year, the top prize - known, like the lottery itself, as "El Gordo" - went to number 79250. Tickets bearing that number were sold in the Madrid area, Barcelona, Alicante in the east and other cities ranging from the Basque region in the north to Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
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