El Gordo Becomes International

Spain has a long tradition of lottery. The most famous is the Christmas lottery (Loteria de Navidad), or better known El Gordo (the fat one, or the big one). It has been organized every year since 1812.

El Gordo is based on tickets which have 5-digit numbers, similar to the regular Spanish national lottery. Each set of numbers on each of the tickets is sold multiple times in so-called “series”. Between the series, there is no difference in money prizes.

The Christmas lottery is drawn on December 22. The national television broadcasts the three hour session to an estimated 20 million viewers. As usual in Spain, people will flood the streets and make a fiesta after the Spanish gambling news announce the results.

Spanish gambling laws limit the sale of EL Gordo tickets to Spain only. However, tickets are apparently available through an Spanish online lottery operation to customers outside the country.

The El Gordo prize pool this year is estimated to exceed Euro 2.5 billion. A full ticket costs EUR 200, but players have the choice to buy a tenth called a Decimo for twenty Euros that entitles them for a 10 percent payout of the normal prize.

According to estimates, 98 percent of Spanish adults play El Gordo, or “the world’s richest lottery game”.

Online lottery firm WinTrillions now offers online tickets which will be purchased over the counter by the company’s Spanish partners. After the purchase, the owner’s details are printed on the ticket and sent via a scanned copy.

WinTrillions commented: “El Gordo is the world’s oldest and biggest lottery game, regularly attracting TV audiences in excess of 20 million for the three hour draw program, and now it can be played around the world. The beauty of this game is that you have a great chance of winning, with 360 millionaires guaranteed to be created, winning up to Euro 4 million each.”