Madrid – In Spain, every year on 22 December, the lottery craze takes place.

On Wednesday morning – traditionally two days before Christmas – the drawing of the lucky numbers of the famous Spanish Christmas lottery began at the Teatro Real Opera House (opened in 1850). Millions of people watch him live on TV.

The main prize is called “El Gordo”. It is translated as “fat one”. With good reason: Four million euros are awarded for the entire winning lot.

In Spain a whole lot costs 200 Euros. However, since it is too expensive for many players, the “desimo” – “one tenth of the ticket” – has become common. It costs 20 euros. Accordingly, the winners of this lot will receive one tenth of “El Gordo”, or 400,000 euros.

The next high win after “El Gordo” is still a proud 1.25 million euro for the full ticket.

“El Gordo” can be distributed multiple times, as each lot is issued in a volume of 172 pieces, so that there are as many main prizes. The raffle is considered one of the oldest and largest in the world, dating back more than 200 years. The first drawing took place in 1812.

A total of 2.4 billion euros to be played are now waiting for the winners. Because even smaller prizes are taken out, the ceremony can last up to four hours.

Student: The main prize in 2019 was drawn almost ten minutes after the start.

“El Gordo” – a huge spectacle!

There are two golden lottery drums in the Opera House. One contains 100,000 small wooden balls with ticket numbers, the other contains 1,800 large balls with winnings. During the drawing, a ball falls at the same time from each drum: a ticket number and the corresponding prize.

Students at Madrid’s San Ildefonso boarding school sing ticket numbers. Children are considered lucky charms.

By the way: this year the lot was sold for about 3.4 billion euros. A good of them goes as a tax to the Arab state.