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Spanish Christmas Lottery
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Spanish Christmas Lottery
The Spanish Christmas Lottery (officially Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad [soɾˈteo e(ɣ)stɾaoɾðiˈnaɾjo ðe naβiˈðað] or simply Lotería de Navidad [loteˈɾi.a ðe naβiˈðað]) is a special draw of Lotería Nacional, the weekly national lottery run by Spain's state-owned Loterías y Apuestas del Estado. The extraordinary Christmas draw takes place every 22 December and it is the biggest and most popular draw of the year.
As measured by the total prize payout, the Spanish Christmas Lottery is considered the biggest lottery draw worldwide. In 2024, with 193 million pre-printed €20 tickets to sell (décimos), the maximum total amount available for all prizes would be €2.702 billion (seventy per cent of ticket sales). The total amount for the first prize El Gordo ("the big one") would be €772 million.
In the Spanish-speaking and the English-speaking media it is sometimes just called El Gordo, even though that name really refers to the first prize for any Spanish lottery.
Lotería Nacional, with its first draw held on 4 March 1812, is the second-longest continuously running lottery in the world, just behind Dutch Staatsloterij running since 1726. This includes the years during the Spanish Civil War when two draws were held, one on each warring side. The first Lotería Nacional draw held at Christmas was on 18 December 1812 in Cádiz and the grand prize was for the number 03604. The first time that the Christmas draw was extraordinary was in 1818, and the first time the name Sorteo de Navidad was officially used was in 1897.
As all Lotería Nacional draws, the special Christmas draw is based on tickets (billetes) which have five-digit numbers, from 00000 to 99999. Since this system only produces 100,000 unique ticket numbers, each ticket number is printed multiple times, in several so-called series. The series is also identified on each ticket by a series number. In this way, the lottery organizer is able to sell more than 100,000 tickets each year, numbered from "Series 001 Ticket 00000" through "Series xxx Ticket 99999", where xxx is the total number of series printed in a given year. In 2024, there are 193 series of 100,000 tickets each, for a total of 19,300,000 tickets available at €200 each. If all €3.86 billion tickets were sold, there would be €2.702 billion (seventy percent of ticket sales) available for prizes.
Because the €200 ticket price may be prohibitive for many purchasers, each of the pre-printed tickets is actually a perforated tear-apart sheet of ten identical sub-tickets (or fractions) sold for €20 each. Each one of these fractions is known as a décimo (one-tenth). Each décimo is entitled a ten per cent of any prize that the ticket has won.
Tickets are officially sold in official lottery shops throughout the country as well as by sellers on the street. Frequently a shop will sell a ticket number in all series meaning that all the winners of that ticket will have purchased their tickets in that location. This sometimes leads to a small village full of grand prize winners. Locations where previous grand prize winners were sold often becomes a location of lottery pilgrimage where thousands of people will buy their ticket. The tickets are also sold outside of Spain, usually online, and often with a markup in price.
On a private basis, or through associations, charities, workplaces, sports teams, cafés, shops, and other organizations, it is also possible to buy or be given a fraction of a décimo (one-tenth ticket). Many organizations buy décimos and divide them further into shares and sell them to the public, colleagues, or members of an association. Usually, with charities and special organizations, a small transaction fee is applied which is effectively a donation to the organization. Street sellers may take a commission earning a small profit. Such shares are made by writing the ticket number and the amount paid on a piece of paper and then signed. The paper is a legal contract in Spain and proof of participation in the ticket. If the ticket is a winner, anyone holding a share will be entitled to their proportional amount of the prize payout. For example, a charity may buy a décimo and split it further into ten more shares, in this case selling them for €2 each plus €1 extra as a donation to the charity. If their number wins, they will get a one percent of the prize (one-tenth of one-tenth).
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Spanish Christmas Lottery AI simulator
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Spanish Christmas Lottery
The Spanish Christmas Lottery (officially Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad [soɾˈteo e(ɣ)stɾaoɾðiˈnaɾjo ðe naβiˈðað] or simply Lotería de Navidad [loteˈɾi.a ðe naβiˈðað]) is a special draw of Lotería Nacional, the weekly national lottery run by Spain's state-owned Loterías y Apuestas del Estado. The extraordinary Christmas draw takes place every 22 December and it is the biggest and most popular draw of the year.
As measured by the total prize payout, the Spanish Christmas Lottery is considered the biggest lottery draw worldwide. In 2024, with 193 million pre-printed €20 tickets to sell (décimos), the maximum total amount available for all prizes would be €2.702 billion (seventy per cent of ticket sales). The total amount for the first prize El Gordo ("the big one") would be €772 million.
In the Spanish-speaking and the English-speaking media it is sometimes just called El Gordo, even though that name really refers to the first prize for any Spanish lottery.
Lotería Nacional, with its first draw held on 4 March 1812, is the second-longest continuously running lottery in the world, just behind Dutch Staatsloterij running since 1726. This includes the years during the Spanish Civil War when two draws were held, one on each warring side. The first Lotería Nacional draw held at Christmas was on 18 December 1812 in Cádiz and the grand prize was for the number 03604. The first time that the Christmas draw was extraordinary was in 1818, and the first time the name Sorteo de Navidad was officially used was in 1897.
As all Lotería Nacional draws, the special Christmas draw is based on tickets (billetes) which have five-digit numbers, from 00000 to 99999. Since this system only produces 100,000 unique ticket numbers, each ticket number is printed multiple times, in several so-called series. The series is also identified on each ticket by a series number. In this way, the lottery organizer is able to sell more than 100,000 tickets each year, numbered from "Series 001 Ticket 00000" through "Series xxx Ticket 99999", where xxx is the total number of series printed in a given year. In 2024, there are 193 series of 100,000 tickets each, for a total of 19,300,000 tickets available at €200 each. If all €3.86 billion tickets were sold, there would be €2.702 billion (seventy percent of ticket sales) available for prizes.
Because the €200 ticket price may be prohibitive for many purchasers, each of the pre-printed tickets is actually a perforated tear-apart sheet of ten identical sub-tickets (or fractions) sold for €20 each. Each one of these fractions is known as a décimo (one-tenth). Each décimo is entitled a ten per cent of any prize that the ticket has won.
Tickets are officially sold in official lottery shops throughout the country as well as by sellers on the street. Frequently a shop will sell a ticket number in all series meaning that all the winners of that ticket will have purchased their tickets in that location. This sometimes leads to a small village full of grand prize winners. Locations where previous grand prize winners were sold often becomes a location of lottery pilgrimage where thousands of people will buy their ticket. The tickets are also sold outside of Spain, usually online, and often with a markup in price.
On a private basis, or through associations, charities, workplaces, sports teams, cafés, shops, and other organizations, it is also possible to buy or be given a fraction of a décimo (one-tenth ticket). Many organizations buy décimos and divide them further into shares and sell them to the public, colleagues, or members of an association. Usually, with charities and special organizations, a small transaction fee is applied which is effectively a donation to the organization. Street sellers may take a commission earning a small profit. Such shares are made by writing the ticket number and the amount paid on a piece of paper and then signed. The paper is a legal contract in Spain and proof of participation in the ticket. If the ticket is a winner, anyone holding a share will be entitled to their proportional amount of the prize payout. For example, a charity may buy a décimo and split it further into ten more shares, in this case selling them for €2 each plus €1 extra as a donation to the charity. If their number wins, they will get a one percent of the prize (one-tenth of one-tenth).