Every year for the past 200 years, the Spanish have taken part in an annual ritual just before Christmas. Friends, families and communities buy tickets for the Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad with the hope that they will be able to share in the main prize – El Gordo (the fat one!).
Playing the Christmas lottery draw is one of the Spain’s oldest and most popular traditions and sometimes whole communities have become winners together. This is because the Spanish tend to buy the tickets in syndicates – taking a share of each ticket that they buy. That way, the win is a communal one, which adds to the sense of Christmas spirit. The most recent example of this was in 2011 when the whole town of Grañén won El Gordo together.
The Spanish Christmas lottery works slightly differently from most lotteries in that there isn’t one huge jackpot for one or two people. Instead, a larger number of people will take a share in the main prize. This is because there is a set number of tickets issued each year and every possible five digit combination of the numbers 0 to 9 is printed a set number of times, so that the main prize will be distributed among all those who hold the same winning numbers, not just one or two people.
This means that the Spanish lottery offers a far greater chance of winning than many other lotteries – you have a 1 in 100,000 shot at El Gordo compared with the odds on Euromillions which are much slimmer at 1 in 116,531,800.
Until recently, it’s not been possible for people living outside of Spain to get involved in the Spanish Christmas lottery, but now anyone can buy tickets or shares in tickets online. A full ticket is £200, so it’s probable you’ll only want to buy a share of a ticket, but you could do the community thing and get your friends and family to go in with you on one ticket. Then, if you had a winning ticket, you’d all be able to enjoy an even merrier Christmas than usual together!
