The Spanish Christmas lottery is one of the largest and oldest raffles in the world. Today it was that time again. Anyone who was aiming for the main prize “El Gordo” had to be patient. By Franka Welz.
The Spanish Christmas lottery is one of the largest and oldest raffles in the world. Today it was that time again. Anyone who was aiming for the main prize “El Gordo” had to be patient.
1:16 p.m. The big main prize has never fallen out of the lottery drum this late – not since the lottery’s records began in 1993. In the hours leading up to the redeeming moment, there were mainly small winnings of 1,000 euros each, presented in the typical singsong of students from the Madrid Ildefonso boarding school.
Occasionally a larger prize, 60,000 or a quarter of a million euros, but no trace of “El Gordo”. One would think that the audience has been lulled for a long time. But things keep getting restless in the hall: they chant “El Gordo.”
Some had waited in front of the Teatro Real all night to be there today. Dressed up and put on glittering green Christmas tree hats or red pointed caps. The relief was correspondingly great when “the fat one” finally showed up. In the opera house, but also throughout the country – especially in Jáen and Écija near Seville in Andalusia and in the capital Madrid.
Yesica Paola Valencia and Francisco Moreno sang first prize for ticket number 88008.
“88008 is an ugly number,” says Rocio Arias, who sold winning tickets worth 200 million euros to men and women in her sales outlet. For her, it is the first “El Gordo” as a saleswoman: “I have only been selling lottery tickets since September, since my husband passed away. He has been a ticket seller all his life, along with his mother. My husband went to heaven and has us ‘El Gordo’ given”.
A whole ticket with the correct winning number brings four million euros. But only very few winners receive that much. Because a ticket costs at least 200 euros, most people can only afford a tenth ticket for 20 euros. So we get 400,000 euros for the 88008. Strictly speaking, there are still 328,000 euros left after taxes, but that is also impressive.
Franka Welz, ARD Madrid, tagesschau, December 22nd, 2023 5:00 p.m