Spanish Christmas Lottery
In the Spanish-speaking and the English-speaking media it is sometimes just called El Gordo,[2] even though that name really refers to the first prize for any Spanish lottery.
The first Lotería Nacional draw held at Christmas was on 18 December 1812 in Cádiz and the grand prize was for the number 03604.
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.
Such shares are made by writing the ticket number and the amount paid on a piece of paper and then signed.
If the ticket is a winner, anyone holding a share will be entitled to their proportional amount of the prize payout.
Until 1984, only boys from San Ildefonso participated in the drawing; that year Mónica Rodríguez became the first girl to sing the results, including the fourth prize of 25 million pesetas.
[11] The state-run Televisión Española and Radio Nacional de España, and other media networks, broadcast live the entire draw, which is also livestreamed.
When a major prize is drawn, both children pause, sing the prize and winning number multiple times and show the balls to a committee, and then to a fixed camera with two Phillips screwdriver heads mounted at the front, all before being inserted in the wires with the others.
[13][14][15][16][17] Once the first prize (El Gordo) is declared, its winning number is instantly broadcast on television, online, and on public screens.
Once each frame is filled, it undergoes several checks and verifications to certify the winning numbers and their corresponding prizes that it contains.
Once everything has been verified, the official list of prizes is generated and sent to the Royal Mint, which is responsible for printing it.
This official list is distributed –physically and electronically– that same afternoon to the lottery shops and the media so that everyone can check their tickets.
The winning numbers are those on the official prize list, regardless of what the children have sung, since they could have made a mistake.
One of the most notorious errors when singing occurred in 1987, when the children sang number 20864 with a pedrea of 125,000 pesetas, but when the draw officer saw the balls in the wires he noticed that the number was actually 20064, and it had won instead El Gordo, worth 250 million pesetas.
Those who get their money back often re-invest it in a ticket for Sorteo Extraordinario de El Niño, the second most important Lotería Nacional draw, held every 6 January, the Epiphany of Jesus day.
[19] The odds of winning each of the prizes are the following: The climax of the drawing is the moment when El Gordo is drawn.
[20] Lottery outlets usually sell multiple series –even all– of the numbers assigned to them, so the winners of the largest prizes often live in the same area, work for the same company, or are members of the same association.
