The El Gordo Lottery And How It Operates

The El Gordo (The Fat One) Christmas lottery is the most time-honoured lottery game in Spain with the vast majority of the country’s residents taking part. Believe it or not, this draw has grown to be a national hobby with 98% of Spain’s inhabitants taking part. This is not really remarkable when you hear that the El Gordo lottery is the biggest prize fund lottery game globally.

The average Spanish resident spends roughly 73 Euros in the Christmas draw and in 2008 the prize fund is estimated to surpass a massive €2.20 billion. Here are a number of key features of the El Gordo lottery:

• In excess of 13,000 prizes are paid out.
• It is operated by the Spanish Government.
• There is an exceptional 1 in 6 chance of winning a cash prize.
• All prizes are paid out straight away and are tax exempt for Spanish residents.
• 70% of the revenue generated by ticket sales is paid out in cash prizes.
Since December 1812 this Spanish lottery game has operated in precisely the same manner year on year. Two big circular containers are used; one of them contains tens of thousands of small wooden balls representing all ticket numbers; the other one contains a smaller amount of wooden balls representing the prizes to be drawn. In the Lotería Nacional hall in Madrid, pupils of the San Ildefonso School (previously reserved for orphans of public servants) draw the numbers and corresponding prizes, singing the results audibly to the huge Madrid crowd while both Spanish national television and radio broadcast the event.

Due to the sheer amount of numbers and prizes, this process takes approximately 3 hours to complete. In recent years, in excess of 4,800 individual numbers have scooped no less than €1,000 per billete (€100 per décimo) in the Christmas draw. Those who do not win often come out with the predictable remark that "it's health that really matters". Participants who simply get their money back will often re-invest the winnings in a ticket for El Niño, the second most significant draw, held on January the 6th every year.

The two vessel system is the time-honoured method of drawing the numbers in Spanish lotteries but this system is now kept exclusively for the famous Christmas draw. The remainder of the weekly draws as well as the five other yearly El Gordo draws operate using five vessels with ten balls in each, from where the winning numbers are picked.

Lotto shops in Spain usually only sell tickets for one or two numbers, so the winners of the principal prizes often reside in the same city or neighbourhood or work for the same company. In 2005, the winning number was sold in the town of Vic in Catalonia (population 37,825), whose citizens scooped in the region of €500 million.

Historically, you could only play the El Gordo if you were a citizen of Spain. However, with the introduction of lottery ticket sales agents you now have the opportunity to take part in this internationally renowned Spanish national lottery regardless of where you reside around the world. Some worldwide El Gordo syndicates have also been introduced to not only allow more people access to this lotto but to enhance their probability of collecting cash prizes also.

Gavin Evans is a full time internet marketer living in the market town of Cowbridge in South Wales, UK. Gavin is also a leading affiliate for the e-Lottery Syndicate System. Discover the advantages of playing the Euromillions and El Gordo as an e-lottery syndicate member.