SPANISH CHRISTMAS LOTTERY
The Spanish Christmas Lottery is known both in Spain and throughout the world by different names, which leads to confusion, since sometimes people believe that they are different Lottery raffle.
The official name of this Spanish raffle is Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad, but it is also known by the following names: Spanish Christmas Lottery, Loteria de Navidad, El Gordo de Navidad, “The Fat”, Spain Loteria de Navidad and Xmas Spanish Lottery. The names are different but they refer to the same Spain Lottery whose draw takes place every December 22nd.
WHEN AND WHERE DRAW TAKES PLACE?
The Spanish Christmas Lottery draw takes place on December 22, in Spain. Since 2012 the drawings it was held in Teatro Real (Royal Theatre) in Madrid (Spain).
HOW IS THE DRAW?
Two large cages (called Bombos) are used:
The largest “bombo” contains 100.000 numbers in small wooden balls, each with a unique 5-digit number on it, from 00000 to 99999 included.
The smaller cage (called bombo) contains 1.807 small wooden balss, each one representing a prize written un euros.
El Gordo Prizes
1 ball for the First Prize (called El Gordo)
1 ball for the Second Prize
1 ball for the Third Prize
2 balls for the Fourth Prizes
8 balls for the Fifth Prizes
1794 balls for Small Prizes (called La Pedrea)
Draw Procedure
A single ball is extracted from each of the two “Bombos” (spheres) at the same time by two young children.
First one child “sings” the winning number, and then the other child “sings” the correspoding prize. This is repeated 1807 times, until the smaller “Bombo” has been emptied. This procedure takes around 3 hours.
Source: wikipedia
WHAT ARE THE PRIZES?
Quantity Prize
1 €4,000,000
1 €1,250,000
1 €500,000
2 €200,000
8 €60,000
1,794 €1,000
2 €20,000
2 €12,500
2 €9,600
99 €1,000
99 €1,000
99 €1,000
3195 €1,000
9,999 €200
WHAT ARE THE ODDS
The odds of winning one of the first five prizes in the Spanish Christmas Lottery are:
Prize Odds
Jackpot (El Gordo) 1:100,000
2nd Prize 1:100,000
3rd Prize 1:100,000
4th Prize 1:50,000
5th Prize 1:12,500
EL GORDO DE NAVIDAD – “THE FAT”
The moment of the best moment of the Spanish Christmas Lottery draw, and all of Spain is nervously awaiting, is when El Gordo (1st Prize) comes out, it is a really exciting moment.
El Gordo de la Loteria de Navidad distributes a total of 640 million euros in prizes, divided into 1600 tickets (décimos) with a prize of 400 thousand euros each.
WHERE CAN I GET A TICKET FOR EL GORDO?
To be able to buy tickets for the Spanish Christmas Lottery you have to be in Spain and go to any Lottery Shop where you will find a large number of different numbers where you can choose your favorite.
In the case you do not live in Spain, but you have friends living in our country, you can ask one them to buy you a ticket, to have at least a chance to win El Gordo.
Another option is to buy Christmas Lottery Online, there are companies, legally established in Spain such as Lottosphoto, whose service is to go to a Lottery Shop in Madrid and buy Spanish Christmas Lottery tickets for you.