Значение лотереи El Gordo в Испании

Famous lottery venues

To continue the topic of superstition, there are large queues in some famous lottery shops where El Gordo has been sold many times. This happens specially when the day of the draw is nearer. A well-known example is Doña Manolita in Madrid, but there are other very popular places around Spain.

In Sort, a small town in Lleida (Cataluña), there is an administration called La Bruixa d’Or (The Golden Witch) that has sold El Gordo four times since 2003, two of them consecutive. Nowadays, 87% of their revenue related with the Christmas lottery comes from online purchases made by people throughout Spain.

But what if you don’t get any big prize? No problem, because after the draw starts what Spaniards call the ‘day of the Health.’ It is a way of being humorous about not having won the prize draw, in which everybody but the lucky winners says “at least I’m healthy”.

*Pablo Morilla is a journalist, author of the blog Michan en Finlandia.

El Gordo – The Fat Lottery

One of the most exciting Spanish Christmas traditions is playing the lottery. Almost everyone takes parts in the Spanish National Lottery at Christmas time, making it the biggest lottery in the world. It’s so big, it’s called ‘El Gordo’ or ‘the Fat One’, because of the huge cash prizes of more than 2 billion euros.

It’s been held every year since 1812 and it’s a tradition for the winning numbers to be announced live on TV on the morning of December 22nd. As the winning numbers are called, they’re sung out by a choir of school children. It’s also common for friends and coworkers to buy a share of a single ticket together and split the winnings. In 2011, an entire town shared a single ticket and won, splitting the share of 950 million euros! 

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The Caga Tió

In Spain, you rock around the Christmas… log! It’s of the most curious of all Spanish Christmas traditions and it’s found in the Catalonia region. Caga Tió, meaning pooping log, is basically a wooden log dressed up with a face, legs, blanket and a barretina (Catalan hat). Children feed the Caga Tió small pieces of bread or orange peel each evening in the lead up to Christmas.

On Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, they sing the Caga Tió song, whack the log with a stick and ask him to poop out turrón (sweet nougat) and other treats for them. Once the song is finished, they take off the blanket to discover all their hidden sweets.

Where is it celebrated?

The Spanish Christmas Lottery is held in the Royal Theatre (Teatro Real) in Madrid. It is very difficult to catch a free seat in the theatre to watch the draw and people who want to experience it live often have to queue for hours. No matter what you do or how early you get up, there is no guarantee that you can follow the event from within.

Inside the theatre, there is a group of kids anxious to sing El Gordo. They are from San Ildefonso school and they spend a lot of time with the preparations for their most special day. San Ildefonso used to be a boys’ school, so there were no girls singing the Christmas lottery prizes until 1984, when the school became coeducational.

The full event has been broadcasted on television every year since 1957. Not everybody has the chance or the patience to watch it from the start until the end, but a big part of the population is somehow anxious to see El Gordo appear. In 2004, it was at 9:15 when it happened, only 13 minutes after the start, but usually it takes much longer.

The tradition

The tradition of the Christmas lottery is reflected in many ways in Spanish society. It is typical for families and friends to share a ticket or to buy many for different persons. It is common for lottery tickets to be sold in the workplace and also for colleagues — whether they are offices or factories — to play the same number.

The idea is that if fortune brings joy, let it be for all the group members.

In addition to this, some organizations sell tickets with a lower value. If one regular ticket costs 20 euros, those can be divided into smaller shares priced at 2-5 euros. A part of the cost includes a donation to an association or charity. Of course, the potential prize is also proportionally smaller, but these small shares allow people who are short on money to bet on multiple numbers and widen their chances of winning.

Famous First Prize Winners

Due to the enormous shared payout, Spain’s Christmas lottery has produced some famous first prize winners over the years. Here are a few notable stories:

• In 2011, over 1,800 residents of a small village named Granen in northeastern Spain won a share of the first prize when it matched their town’s popular number 58268. The total winnings for the town exceeded €700 million!
• In 2009, a group of nuns at the San Ildefonso school won €950,000 from a ticket they had accidentally been sold. They gave all the money back to the school.
• In 2015, the monks operating the famous Montserrat monastery outside Barcelona won €500,000 and gave the money to charity projects helping the needy.
• A bar owner in Madrid won a share of the first prize 3 different times across just 5 years between 2013 and 2017, sharing over €9 million among his customers who played at his bar.

These stories and many others like them help demonstrate how El Gordo delivers life-changing winnings, while also bringing good fortune and joy to groups, communities, and organizations across Spain.

Portal de Beléns

Portal de Beléns, meaning ‘stable of Bethlehem’, are the incredible nativity scenes found across Spain at Christmas time. They’re more than just a few figurines in a stable – these are huge and elaborate nativity scenes, with houses, markets, farms, rivers and all kinds of characters.

You’ll see them in traditional households, shop windows and town squares in the lead up to Christmas, and you’ll spot handmade figurines like baby Jesus and the Three Wise Kings in Christmas markets all over Spain. You can even watch living Beléns, where real actors and animals recreate the Nativity scene. 

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How do you play Primitiva lottery?

La Primitiva has draws twice a week, Thursdays and Saturdays that you can buy lottery tickets online. The lottery has the usual format 6/49 which means you choose six numbers between 1-49. They have included what is called Reintegro. Organizers draw 7 numbers – the six main numbers plus a bonus ball.

What is Primitiva?

Lotería Primitiva A Spanish state lottery founded in 1985. It works like the bonoloto players mark six numbers on a ticket containing 49 numbers and win the main prize if all their numbers come up in the draw.

How much does a Billete cost?

El Gordi tickets and numbers A full ticket sheet called billete costs €200. Each billete ticket sheet is divided into ten smaller tickets called ‘décimos’ which cost €20 each. Most people buy a ‘décimo’, which like a full lottery ticket, but as explained above a ‘décimo’ is technically a tenth of a ticket.

What is the highest lottery jackpot ever?

That prize remains the world’s largest lottery prize ever awarded on a single ticket, according to Mega Millions. The biggest lottery prize ever awarded in the United States was a $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot in 2016, according to The Associated Press.

What is Gordo?

Gordo is often used as its literal translation of “fat” but it is not nearly as taboo as it is in English. It is very common for friends to refer to chubbier friends as el gordito or la gordita or simply el gordo or la gorda.

The Spanish Christmas Lottery

Spain’s Christmas lottery, known as “El Gordo” (which means “the big one” or “the fat one” in Spanish), is the biggest lottery draw not only in Spain but in the entire world. The lottery has been running since 1812, making it over 200 years old. It takes place each year on December 22nd and the drawings go on for several hours as the prizes across all the ticket numbers are announced one by one. Millions of Spaniards buy tickets each year hoping to win a share of the enormous prize pool.

Here are some key facts about Spain’s famous Christmas lottery:

• The total prize pool is over €2 billion euros, making El Gordo the richest lottery in the world.
• The first prize is €4 million euros for each full winning ticket. But because each number is printed multiple times across all the tickets, the top prize is shared among many people. The most winners for one number has been over 1,600 people!
• There are many smaller prizes too, down to €20 for getting just the last 2 digits of a winning number.
• Over 15,000 different number combinations are printed across all tickets.
• Almost 3 out of 4 adults in Spain buy at least one €20 ticket for El Gordo.
• The lottery draw takes place in Madrid’s Teatro Real opera house.
• Children from Madrid’s San Ildefonso school call out the winning numbers and prizes.
• The drawings are live on TV and radio across Spain and last 3-4 hours.

As you can see, Spain’s Christmas lottery is a very big deal! The incredibly large prize pool and fact that winnings are shared among many ticket holders makes El Gordo quite unique compared to other lotteries around the world.

Easy Steps for Playing Spain’s El Gordo Weekly Lottery

How Will You Play?

This is a popular Spanish lottery that anyone can play locally. This you’ll do by purchasing a ticket from registered retailers. There’s also the luxury of using the El Gordo de la Primitiva online system.

A helpful tool with this lottery is that there are multi-draw tickets available as well. Make sure you request the right one when you buy your tickets.

Furthermore, its popularity also makes it a prime lottery you’ll find on online lottery sites and you’ll notice welcome extra features like 20% off when using Jackpot.com, if you commit to playing 10 lines. There’s also the chance to pay a little less when using monthly subscription services, as is the case on WinTrillions. Plus, their layouts are very user friendly AND you can pick your numbers and secure your bet at any time of the day or night.

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Pick Your Lucky Numbers

In the weekly El Gordo you pick numbers from two sets:

• A set of five numbers, picking from the number range 1 to 54.
• Another key number, also called the Numero Clave, between 0 and 9.

Credit: TheLotter

Finalize Your Purchase

Make sure that you have your ticket in hand and put it in a safe place if buying from local retailers. If you’re using handy online lottery agents it’s easy because the system will store your purchase on your behalf.

Make sure your purchase is finalized before the draw takes place, because there is a cut off time!

Monitor the Draw

If you haven’t won a prize in a while, don’t lose hope or stop checking your numbers diligently after each draw. Remember, you have a chance of winning with every new lottery ticket you pick.

The draw is at 21:30 local time each Sunday. The easiest way to make sure you don’t miss out on a prize is to monitor the draw on the Sunday it takes place. This way, there’s no chance of forgetting about it once Monday comes by and starts off a hectic week.

The results are shown on various platforms, thanks to an active social media presence of local Spanish role players. Once again, similar to buying your tickets, using the convenience of lottery agents is a smart option for checking results too. For example, Lottoland keeps stats updated and showcases the winning numbers online soon after the draw. You can also get automated messages in the case of your number selection being the same as the winning numbers.

Claim Your Prize

Make sure to claim your prize within 3 months of the draw, as this is the cut off time for prize payouts. As mentioned above, you can claim from lottery outlets, lottery agents or banks, all depending on how you played the game and how big your prize is.

When the clock strikes midnight … eat grapes!

Region: all of Spain

While technically not a Spanish christmas tradition, the Spanish New Year’s Eve (known counterintuitively as nochevieja or ‘old night’) is a time to celebrate throughout Spain, as in most other places. But just before the clock strikes midnight, there something you must do.  You must be prepared with fruit.  Grapes to be exact.  And you’ll need exactly 12 of them.  In Spain, at each of the 12 seconds proceeding the new year, you must eat one grape. To keep rhythm in many places you will hear the ringing of the bells – once per second for 12 times – and with each ring you’ve got to down a grape.

New Year’s Eve at Puerta del Sol Madrid

The most popular spot in Spain for ringing in the new year is the clock tower at Puerta del Sol in the center of Madrid. The bells on top of the old mail building ring out 12 times and everybody in the square eats their grapes!

The History of Spanish Lotteries

The first lottery draw in Spain was held on 10 December 1763. It was named “Lottery by Numbers” and was created to avoid imposing a new tax upon its citizens. It was not particularly popular and was overhauled several times to give it more favourability and odds to win, something that made it less profitable for the Government. “Lottery by Numbers” was later renamed the Primitiva Lottery and was briefly popular until the launch of the El Gordo lottery in 1812. The Primitiva Lottery disappeared altogether in 1862 before returning in over a century later in 1985.

The “Lucky Dwarf” or the “Lottery Freak”

Coming back to the “Lottery by Numbers”, in order to promote this draw, a new mascot was used as a character that was born even before the very own lottery and that was used in many cards and books of those times, a character that was known as the “Lucky Dwarf” or the “Lottery Freak”. It was a chubby, short character whose body was made up of numbered lottery balls.

Almost half a century after the launch of the “Lottery by Numbers”, between 1808 and 1814 and within the context of the Napoleonic wars, the Spanish Independence War between Spain and France kicked off due to the Peninsula invasion by the French Empire and Napoleón Bonaparte’ s intention to place his brother José Bonaparte in the Spanish throne after the abdications of Bayona. Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom formed an alliance against France in a devastating conflict that led to approximately 1,000,000 deaths and generated huge military expenditures. In order to deal with these huge expenditures, and at the worst moment of the war against the Gauls, the Spanish Government created another lottery draw in 1811 encouraged by the Minister Ciriaco González Carvajal, called “Modern Lottery”, and with the aim to “increase the revenue of the public funds without affecting the taxpayers”. Thus, the first draw was held in Cádiz on 4 March 1812 through tickets with printed numbers, and on 18 December of that same year the first Christmas draw took place. The first “Gordo de Navidad” (Christmas “Gordo”) in history, consisting of a prize of 8,000 «pesos fuertes» (powerful pesos), was won by a lucky Spanish ordinary fellow who had only spent 40 «reales» on number 03604.

After the first draw of the “Modern Lottery” with printed numbers, the “Lottery by Numbers” changed its name to the “Primitiva Lottery” and both draws co-existed for 50 years. The “Modern Lottery” started to attract a lot of followers very quickly, to the point that between 1815 and 1817 the “Modern Lottery” had already doubled the Esquilache Marquis’ earnings with the Primitiva Lottery, and in the following two years the amount grew exponentially, to the extent that in 1862 the Primitiva Lottery was wiped out, and it did not come back until 1985. On the other hand, the Christmas draw of the “Modern Lottery” turned permanently into the main, most resounding draw and in the tradition that we all currently know, and which name was changed to “Christmas Draw” in 1892.

In the middle of this whole story, the drawing of this new character has been going around the country all these years and has become extremely popular through a tale to encourage playing the lottery: “This Lucky Dwarf, full of happiness and money, overjoyed because of his fortune, will show you the way if you study him carefully.” The dwarf´s mission was to convince people to buy lottery tickets and try their luck in the draw, and all of this through rhymes. The drawn character was so successful that even a new weekly gazette called “The Dwarf” was created in 1851, which was presented as a “hot, teasing and argumentative newspaper” and that was advertised as the cheapest newspaper in Spain. The gazette became one of the long-lived publications of the bullfighting press, as it lasted until the year 1912.

The Lucky Dwarf became El Gordo

As years went by, people called the “dwarf” different names, but due to his chubby appearance, the most successful nickname among the Spaniards was “El Gordo” (“The Fat One”), and this name was finally also applied to the draw itself. Francisco José Gómez Fernández, author of “Breve historia de la Navidad” (“Christmas Short Story”) declares that “there is no doubt that this character gave the name “Gordo de la Lotería” to its first prize.”

From the first Gordo in history until today, there have been other 209 winning “Gordo de Navidad” lottery numbers, which has survived all types of political contingencies, economic crises, and even a civil war in which such draw was held twice in 1938 at the two confronted sides.

Why is El Gordo celebrated?

El Gordo means The Fat One simply because of the amount of money which is handed out in prizes.

Who can play El Gordo lottery?

You must be over 18 to play or claim a prize.

Is El Gordo com legitimate?

Is it a scam? It is a scam. A number of groups of criminals, of various nationalities, are using the prestige and the commercial names of the Spanish Lottery by fraudulent means in several countries.

Has anyone won El Gordo?

The winning number in this year’s Christmas lottery – popularly known as El Gordo (The Fat One) – is 72897. The lucky five-digit figure corresponding to the top €4-million prize was sung out by two children from San Ildefonso school as per tradition shortly after noon.

What is El Gordo in the Spanish lottery?

Millions of Spaniards will pick up a lottery ticket (or several) in between running errands and holiday shopping, all eager to try their chance at the big jackpot, known as El Gordo (which literally means “the fat one”).

What makes the Spanish Christmas Lottery so special?

The truth is that the novelty of the Spanish Christmas lottery isn’t the amount of prize money that the winners get. What makes this lottery special is the idea of sharing the prize among family and friends. A full lottery ticket itself costs €200, which is a lot to drop at once.

Lottery ranked as the world’s richest for total prize money involved

The Associated Press · Posted: Dec 22, 2022 10:05 AM EST | Last Updated: December 22, 2022

People applaud for Perla Gavidia from Peru and her daughter Michelle after they won the first prize in the draw of Spain’s traditional Christmas lottery El Gordo (The Fat One), at Teatro Real, in Madrid, on Thursday. (Susana Vera/Reuters )

Spain kicked off the winter holidays with its huge Christmas lottery known as El Gordo (The Fat One), and an unemployed Peruvian woman was among the winners of its top 400,000-euro ($578,800 Cdn) prizes Thursday.

The winning ticket number was announced in Madrid’s Teatro Real opera theatre, where the woman, identified as Perla Gavidia, was immediately surrounded by reporters during the nationally televised event.

The woman said she lost her job at a cafe two years ago and had bought lottery tickets «everywhere I have visited this year.» She revealed she purchased the 20-euro ticket with the number 05490 that led to Thursday’s win in Spain’s northern Asturias region.

«I felt would strike me here today,» she told reporters excitedly while standing beside her two children.

The woman said she planned to use her lottery proceeds, which amount to some 325,000 euros ($470,000 Cdn) after taxes, to buy an apartment in Madrid, where her children attend primary school, and to make a donation to an unspecified church.

People celebrate winning lottery numbers in Madrid. (Isabel Infantes/Reuters)

The incredibly popular El Gordo dishes out a total of 2.5 billion euros ($3.62 billion Cdn) in prize money, much of it in hundreds of smaller amounts. Purchasing and sharing tickets, known in Spanish as «decimos» (tenths) in the run-up to Christmas is a tradition among families, friends and co-workers, and in bars and sports and social clubs.

For weeks beforehand there are queues, even in the cold and rain, outside lottery offices, especially those that have sold prize-winning tickets in the past. Ticket sales begin months ahead — this year as early as July.

The Dec. 22 lottery began in 1812. From the beginning, children from Madrid’s San Ildefonso school have called out the winning numbers.

The children pick up balls showing ticket numbers and their corresponding prizes from two giant rolling drums. They sing out both figures with a rhythmic cadence that is known to everyone in Spain.

Schoolboys sing out the numbers of the first prize during the lottery draw. (Susana Vera/Reuters)

Other lotteries have bigger individual top prizes, but Spain’s Christmas lottery, held each year on Dec. 22, is ranked as the world’s richest for the total prize money involved.

Spain established its national lottery as a charity in 1763, during the reign of King Carlos III. Its objective later became to shore up state coffers. It also helps several charities.

As in other years, this year’s lottery produced jubilant street and bar scenes of winners laughing, dancing and singing with uncorked bottles of sparkling wine.

Queen Elizabeth’s National Lottery

The Print Collector/Getty Images
Queen Elizabeth I medal, 16th century.

The first state lottery in English history dates to 1567, when Queen Elizabeth I organized a drawing to raise funds for the “reparation of the havens and strength of the Realm, and towards such other public good works.” The Queen’s lottery was somewhat unusual by modern standards. Lots cost 10 shillings a pop—a hefty sum at the time—and prizes were offered for over 10,000 of the participants, including 5,000 pounds sterling in cash, plate, tapestries and linens for the first place winner. Public response to the project was relatively tepid, but it marked the beginning of an English tradition of using lotteries to raise public funds. In the early 1600s, for example, the Virginia Company of London ran a lottery to help finance its Jamestown colony in North America.

How does El Gordo lottery work?

You can buy shares of ticket numbers If a ticket number wins the “El Gordo” first prize, then the holder of a “full” ticket would win €4m. A player that holds only a single 1/100th share of that ticket would win 1/100th of the prize – €40,000.

What is the fat lottery in Spain?

MADRID — Fortune shined Tuesday on the lucky holders of tickets with the number 72897 that took top prize in the Spain’s huge Christmas lottery, known as “El Gordo” (The Fat One). The prize shelled out 400,000 euros ($489,000), or some 325,000 euros after tax, to holders of 20-euro tickets bearing the number.

How much money is El Gordo?

Different from other lotteries that have only a few big winners, “El Gordo” (the “Fat One”) shares the wealth of its €2.4 billion pot with thousands of winners nationwide. The biggest prize is worth €4 million.

How does lottery work in Spain?

All six numbers win you the jackpot. If you match the last two, you’ll receive a smaller cash prize. Match the last number and you get the price of your ticket refunded. Also, like El Gordo tickets are sold in tenths (décimos), for 20 euros.

How much tax do you pay on lottery winnings in Spain?

Taxation of lottery prizes in Spain The exempt amount will be 40,000 euros for prizes held from January 1, 2020. It should also be noted that the tax is levied independently on each of the prizes won. 20% is the percentage of withholding that, in per cent, coincides with the tax rate.