There are lotteries available for you to play all around the world each and every day of the year. But one really neat tradition in Spain is for everyone, and we do mean everyone, of legal age to play the lottery on December 22. As you can imagine, this guarantees a massive payday for someone, and with current technology and legislation in place which allows you to purchase your tickets online, you can get involved, whether you live in Spain, the United States or anywhere else in the world. And with each Spaniard spending an average of about 73 euros ($104 US) on the Christmas El Gordo lottery last year, you know this year’s Christmas Spanish lottery jackpot is going to be huge. In 2012, the lottery dished out €2.52 billion ($3.29 billion US) to winners. This lottery game is in addition to Spain’s El Gordo Lottery that runs all year long.
In case you have not heard of the Spanish Christmas lottery, it cashes more prizes than any other single lottery draw in the world. Anyone serious about playing the lottery online needs to get a piece of this truly historical drawing each year. On that single day in 2012, 3.6 million euros ($5.0 million US) were spent on the Christmas El Gordo portion of the lottery in Spain alone. Also known as the Spanish Christmas lottery, it is the second longest continuously running lottery offered anywhere in the world. And unlike some lotteries which have the ability of delivering the entire purse to one winner, El Gordo is set up to divide the total amount of prize money in the first category (which is called El Gordo, meaning “the big one”) among 180 winning tickets, making dozens of instant millionaires.
This gives each of those 180 winners a full €4 million ($5.5 million US) each. The draw is managed and regulated by the Spanish government, and delivers the most maximum chances to win a prize of any national lottery. Also, if you are one of the lucky prize-winners, you get a single payment immediately. Definitely one of the most unique lotteries in the world, pupils of the San Ildefonso school which was formerly reserved for public servants and orphans draw the numbers and corresponding prizes, while singing the results allowed in front of a massive public gathering. However, you do not need to live in Spain to participate.
Online lottery retailers have partnered with physical messenger services and trained lottery runners around the world to physically purchase your tickets for you on your behalf. You pay a small fee for this service, your tickets are then scanned and the results e-mailed to your inbox. And if you happen to be a lucky winner, these convenient online lottery service companies will even help you claim your winnings, without asking for anything in return. You can purchase multiple tickets, set up for multiple draws, or simply by one group of the Spanish Christmas El Gordo tickets to join in the fun. And you can do it all from your nearest PC or smartphone.
Another popular Spanish lottery is the weekly El Gordo and popular de la Primitiva lotteries, and “El Gordo” is also found in the name of other lotteries as well. It simply refers to “the first prize” or the big one, as we mentioned earlier, so in the Spanish Christmas lottery, it refers to the first and largest possible prize, that being €4 million ($5.5 million US). To say that the El Gordo prize in the Spanish lottery can be life-changing is a major understatement. Just days before Christmas in the impoverished town of Granen, located in Northeast Los Monegros in Spain, residents cashed in for a total of $940 million thanks to hitting the El Gordo level of the Spanish Christmas lottery. Join the holiday tradition this year, and see if you too can hit The Big One.
