Interested in lotteries? Let us discuss the biggest lottery in the world. Right. Spanish El Gordo de Navidad is the number one lottery in the world, judging by the total prize money the winners get. Every year there are lucky ones taking their right chance to win El Gordo. So what is EL Gordo? Tradition? Commercial project? or a life changer? Let us dig deeper into it.
Christmas lotteries add to the excitement brought by the holiday season
Spanish Lottery has a really long history. It dates back to 1812 and didn’t change its rules much since then. It’s official name is known as Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad or Loteria de Navidad, however in the media it is often referred to as El Gordo de Navidad. Basically, El Gordo itself denotes the grand prize for any lottery in Spain. The very first Christmas lottery took place in Cádiz in 1812, when the government organized it in order to raise money for the Spanish troops fighting against Napoleon’s armies. Today Spanish Christmas lottery is part of the Christmas traditions in the country already. An interesting fact is that Spaniards actually have the second longest continuously running lottery, the first place in this rating goes to the Dutch State Lottery running since 1726.
Since the lottery tradition started, players have always carefully chosen their numbers before they play.
There are a few things to know about the procedure of the Spanish lottery. Let us describe the tickets available, the lottery draw itself and of course – the prize amount.
As with all Lotería Nacional draws, the special Christmas draw is based on tickets having 5-digit, from 00000 to 99999. However, before you hurry to the store or website, there are more things to know about lottery tickets here.
In Spain, the tickets are sold at the lottery offices. They are usually located in hypermarkets or you may find them at small tobacco shops, called ‘Estancos’ by Spaniards. The fun fact is some of the places that used to sell the winning tickets are concerned to be ‘the lucky ones’ and people stand in line for hours in order to get their lottery tickets (f.e. a lottery office in a small town called Sort). You may also buy participaciones in the cafes or other small business items, as mentioned before.
If you are in Spain, you can also buy the lottery ticket online or through the app. There’s the official website for the Spanish Christmas lottery and also their Facebook and Twitter pages. There are smaller ones to conduct the purchase as well. If you are outside of Spain, you may still buy the tickets online. However, be careful when choosing the website for such a service in order to avoid fraud. You need to know that such things occur here as well. Check the terms of use and the privacy policy rules. We’ve prepared a list of recommended US websites you may check to enroll in the lottery game.
The main prize of the Spanish Christmas Lottery is the grand Prix one – El Gordo. Its name is translated into English as ‘the fat one’ and it’s fat indeed. The winning prize amount for it stands at the stage of around 4 million euros. However, that’s not so much for the biggest in the world lottery. The fact is that there are smaller prizes, and the El Gordo or the fat one are also spread among those having the same winning number. In 2021, the total prize payout was 2 38 billion euros ($2.64 billion). Which were divided between winners as shown in the table.
| Quantity | Prize | Description | Total |
| 1 | €4,000,000 | El Gordo (First Prize) | €4,000,000 |
| 1 | €1,250,000 | Second Prize | €1,250,000 |
| 1 | €500,000 | Third Prize | €500,000 |
| 2 | €200,000 | Fourth Prizes | €400,000 |
| 8 | €60,000 | Fifth Prizes | €480,000 |
| 1,794 | €1,000 | La Pedrea | €1,794,000 |
| 2 | €20,000 | For the two numbers just one unit above and below the First Prize | €40,000 |
| 2 | €12,500 | For the two numbers just one unit above and below the Second Prize | €25,000 |
| 2 | €9,600 | For the two numbers just one unit above and below the Third Prize | €19,200 |
| 99 | €1,000 | For the 99 numbers with the same first three digits of the First Prize | €99,000 |
| 99 | €1,000 | For the 99 numbers with the same first three digits of the Second Prize | €99,000 |
| 99 | €1,000 | For the 99 numbers with the same first three digits of the Third Prize | €99,000 |
| 198 | €1,000 | For the 99 numbers with the same first three digits of each of the Fourth Prizes | €198,000 |
| 999 | €1,000 | For the 999 numbers with the same two last digits as the First Prize | €999,000 |
| 999 | €1,000 | For the 999 numbers with the same two last digits as the Second Prize | €999,000 |
| 999 | €1,000 | For the 999 numbers with the same two last digits as the Third Prize | €999,000 |
| 9,999 | €200 | For the 9,999 numbers with the same last digit as the First Prize (refund) | €1,999,800 |
| Total per serie | €14,000,000 | ||
| Total for the 170 series | €2,380,000,000 | ||
In general, the Spanish Christmas Lottery is concerned to be the one with a high chance to win. The top prize in 2022 stays at the same stage of 4 million euros. Bear in mind that 30% of the lottery sales go to the government in taxes and 70% of the ticket sales are paid out in prizes. Winning El Gordo was tax-free until 2013. Since 2013 there has been a 20% tax on all winnings over the amount of €2500. It is also calculated that around 75% of the Spanish are participating in the Lottery El Gordo, some experts even estimate the number to reach 90%.
The Spanish Christmas Lotto is one the most popular, but other national lotteries are also highly attractive.
Christmas is a very exciting time of the year. And the fact that every year so many people are united by lottery participation makes it even more special and traditional. The draw of the lottery is performed in a very ceremonial way as well.
The drawing traditionally takes place on December 22. In the past, it was conducted in the Lotería Nacional hall in Madrid, in 2010 and 2011 it was held at the Palacio Municipal de Congresos de Madrid, and since 2012 in Teatro Real Opera House in Madrid. There are students from San Ildefonso school involved. They sing out the winning ticket numbers. The presenters take out balls with the price number from two Machines. They are called ‘bombos’ and hold thousands of small wooden balls. Marking on the lottery balls is applied by a laser method to exclude changes in the size through a paint layer or material and to equalize the probability of falling out of each of them. The first contains 100,000 bullets, numbered from 00,000 to 99999. In the second – 1,807 bullets, on which the amounts of cash prizes are applied. At once the 2 balls are taken, which form a win for a particular ticket number. These pairs are posted for public inspection. Teatro real becomes a hosting location for a real event. It lasts for several hours until all the winning lottery numbers and prizes are announced and then the celebration follows. People tend to dress up and the excitement is rising when the prize winners get to congratulate each other. The El Gordo winner is especially excited. The whole country is celebrating, no matter if it is a small town or a huge city. Christmas in Spain is indeed special.
Spanish Christmas has a special power of uniting through the traditions of the lottery. Adults, kids, students, and pensioners group together on Dec 22 along with their friends as part of the event to find out if their name is on the winner list. You may share Spain’s Christmas traditions by joining the Christmas lottery, known as El Gordo. Imagine what you would do with the prize money if you got your lucky lottery number. For more information, you may visit the official site, contact us or simply leave us a contact email address. All rights reserved and privacy policy is followed.
A: Overall, prizes will be awarded to 15,304 tickets in every series, which means that 1 in every 6.5 wins a cash prize. In comparison, the chances to win EuroMillions are 1 in 139,838,160, so it’s rather big.
A: Yes. In fact, people around the world spend more money on the El Gordo Lottery than the Spanish people inside the country! In Spain, there is no residency condition for buying and winning the Lottery. But be really careful with the service when you choose the website!
A: If you play online with a different currency as to the winnings from the lottery, the payout will be converted to your currency at the time of winning or withdrawal (depending on the seller). However, playing with a different currency doesn’t put you at a disadvantage whatsoever.
A: It all depends on the lottery and the country it’s played in. Some would allow winnings to be tax-free when it’s below a certain value while others apply tax to every winning. You also need to learn more about the taxing laws related to lotteries for your own country for 100% accuracy.
A: Online retailers need to make money somehow. Most apply a small service fee to the price of the ticket, which is usually quite low. Some sellers do provide a higher price per ticket, but would also include certain features as standard, including message notifications.
A: The winning numbers in 2021 were 86148.
