Holders of tickets with the number 88008 are celebrating in Spain after winning the top prize in Spain’s huge Christmas lottery.
The immensely popular lottery El Gordo – “the fat one” – distributed a total of €2.6 billion in prizes this year, much of it in relatively small sums.
Holders of €20 tickets bearing the top prize number will receive €400,000 after tax.
Street and bar celebrations normally break out, with winners uncorking bottles of sparkling wine and singing and dancing.
The event is televised nationally from Madrid’s Teatro Real opera house.
Purchasing and sharing tickets, known in Spanish as “decimos” (tenths), in the run-up to Christmas is a major tradition among families, friends, co-workers and in bars and sports and social clubs.
The winning numbers were called out by children from Madrid’s San Ildefonso school. The children picked up balls showing ticket numbers and their corresponding prizes from two giant rolling drums. They sing out both figures in a tune that is known to everyone in Spain.
In the weeks beforehand, queues form outside lottery offices, especially those which have sold prize-winning tickets in the past.
Other lotteries have bigger individual top prizes but Spain’s Christmas lottery, held each year on December 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.
The December 22nd lottery began in 1812. Since the beginning, the San Ildefonso college children have been singing the prizes.
