Gold, frankincense and myrrh sound nice but what can you do with them, you can’t exchange them for an X Box or the latest IPhone. Call me old fashioned but I want money, loads of it, that’s why I am shelling out 20 euros for the chance to win a slice of the 2,320 million euros that can be won on El Gordo, Spain’s Christmas lottery.
What A Whopper
It’s not just the size of that pot that makes the fat one the worlds biggest lottery, it’s the fact that 70 per cent of the take is spread around 13,334 winners. Spain will grind to a halt on the morning of 22 December when the elaborate draw is beamed live from Madrid to televisions in homes and bars across the land. The next morning, newspapers will fly off the news stands as hopeful winners scroll down the winning numbers on the special wrap around covers, even the most urgent news takes a back seat to El Gordo.
It Could Even Be You
The good news is you don’t have to be Spanish, or even resident in Spain to play, tickets are issued in many different series and you need to have the winning ticket and series number to be a winner. A complete ticket costs 200 euros but most people buy a decimo (tenth part) for 20 euros, which will win 10% of the prize for the winning number. Everyone wants their favourite or lucky number, the most popular choices this year are 25609, the day Michael Jackson died, and 02012, the end of the world, according to the new movie.
The UK’s National Lottery is just a baby compared to El Gordo, the stampede started with a royal decree in 1763 and is now a well drilled military style campaign organised by the state. The Spanish factory of coins and stamps starts printing tickets in February, and they go on sale from July. Small villages and communities invest in their tickets, and you will see many bars with their ticket proudly displayed. Getting friends to buy tickets in other cities is common, anything to try to tweak the odds in their favour.
The Only Game In Town
The big draw is an event in itself, enough to make Dale Winton break into a cold sweat, sales stop at 6pm on 21 December, and the National Lottery Hall in Madrid is prepared. Wooden balls are placed in two golden cages, one for the ticket number and one for the prize, everything is checked, and the hall is sealed at 11pm. Only three people called Claveros have keys to the hall, and will open up at 8am on the big day and let the crowds pour in to witness the excitement. As the balls are drawn the numbers are sung out, in the style of a Gregorian chant, by children from the San Ildefonso school. The whole process takes three hours, if you hear big yelps of celebration near where you live, El Gordo has just touched someone else’s life. Winners have three months to claim prizes, and may well need that long to sober up.
