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Spain in grip of Xmas lottery fever
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LOTTERY fever gripped Spain yesterday as thousands celebrated wins in the El Gordo lottery draw with prizes totalling 2.24 billion euros (US$2.45 billion), bringing relief from political woes after an inconclusive election.
Winners from across the country flocked to local lottery outlets to celebrate their good fortune in the traditional Christmas lottery draw, the world’s largest.
This year’s biggest winner of the top prize, known as El Gordo, or The Fat One, was sold in the coastal tourist town of Roquetas de Mar, near Malaga, in the southern region of Almeria, where a group of residents will now share out a 4-million-euro prize.
Every year millions club together with friends and family to vie for a possible slice of the over 200-year-old lottery, which pays out 400,000 euros for each 20 euros spent on a number.
This year’s lottery, like others a huge collective affair involving offices and communities across the country, provided a distraction from worries over Sunday’s vote which ended almost four decades of two-party rule and transformed the political landscape.
Pools of office workers and friends often split each number with the final prize being shared out accordingly.
People were glued to TV screens for hours as schoolchildren plucked lottery balls from a rotating drum, singing out the resulting numbers in a chant that filled offices and homes.
Spaniards spent close to 2.6 billion euros on tickets this year, according to the agency that runs the draw.
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