Elisa Menendez
EXCITEMENT is building across Spain for the country’s famous festive lottery El Gordo (the Fat One) tomorrow.
But don’t worry, if you haven’t had a chance to get your ticket yet, there’s still time to grab one from your local Loteria shop, local bar, restaurant or online.
Tickets are on sale in shops until 10pm or online until 11.45pm tonight.
The draw will take place tomorrow at the Teatro Real in Madrid. It is available to watch on TVE1.
Dubbed as the richest lottery in the world, El Gordo attracts a flurry of Spaniards queuing for hours every December in a bid to get their hands on that all important, golden ticket.
And it’s not hard to see why. Instead of there being one winner, there are several prizes up for grabs with an estimated one in six people expected to win.
The total prize money is a whopping €2.38 billion, while all those with the winning numbers will receive €680 million – El Gordo – shared between them. The top prize each can receive is €400,000.
The second prize is €125,000 and the third is €50,000.
There are also two fourth place prizes of €20,000, followed by eight fifth prizes €6,000, while a staggering 1,794 people will will €100.
Unlike the British lottery, you don’t choose the numbers you want from a card. In Spain you are handed the numbers that are available in certain shops.
If you have a lucky number that you need to play, you may have to travel to a specific shop.
The Christmas loteria is not only a way of filling your pockets for the new year, it is a long-standing part of Spanish culture and is the second longest continuously running lottery in the world.
During the Spanish Civil War the lottery draw was held in Valencia after the Republicans were forced to relocate their capital from Madrid.
After the overthrow of the Republican government the lottery continued uninterrupted under the Franco regime up to the present day.
