The Mother of All Lotteries: El Gordo

Posted by Alex in Money & Finance on November 25, 2008 at 2:28 pm


This is the mother of all lotteries: El Gordo (or the "Fat One") Christmas lottery in Spain. How big is El Gordo? Try €2.3 billion in prizes (about 3 billion dollars). And even better: the this particular lottery’s winnings aren’t taxed by the Spanish government.

Hola Valencia blog has more:

El Gordo, the “big one”, is the most important prize in the Spanish Christmas Lottery — the largest lottery in the world. This year, there’s €2.3 billion in prizes (about 3 billion dollars). There’s a word for that: CRAZY.

Also: EXCITING. Roughly 18% of participants stand a chance at winning something, which ain’t bad odds. There are a limited amount of tickets; in 2006 there were 85,000 numbers. At €200, tickets are expensive, so they’re also sold in décimos at €20 apiece. If you hold a décimo of a winning number, you get 10%. [...]

I’ve read that 98% of Spaniards have some sort of stake in El Gordo, and the average amount invested is over €70. This helps explain the hugeness of the pot.

Link – Thanks Juergen!


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20 comments to "The Mother of All Lotteries: El Gordo"

  1. moronic50
    November 25th, 2008 at 2:35 pm

    me and my girl bought ours this year, bought a 10th each. Though we saw people dropping 200 euros to buy the whole number (and more!). Don't know if they mention it in the link but theres a town here in spain who have won the dam thing 7 times. So they changed the name to 'Suerte' meaning Luck.

  2. dave9
    November 25th, 2008 at 2:46 pm

    The best part is that during Christmas, the lottery announcements are done on TV where they have children sing the winning numbers...

  3. Iruell
    November 25th, 2008 at 4:27 pm

    I'm spanish and I would have sworn that lorrery is taxed in Spain, maybe this particular prize is not, but the rest are.

    By the way, the imagen doesn't correspond to a "El Gordo" ticket but to a "El niño" one.

  4. Moon
    November 25th, 2008 at 4:39 pm

    If you live in the US and somehow entered this, you would have pay US taxes on the winnings, though. I'm pretty sure.

    I like the "children singing the winners" - they should do that at the track.

  5. Kaz
    November 25th, 2008 at 5:07 pm

    No, you're not taxed if you live in Spain, because this prize is given by "Loterías y Apuestas del Estado", but if you win a prize that doesn't come from them (like ONCE lottery and the likes), then you are.

  6. Demian
    November 25th, 2008 at 6:16 pm

    The worst part is that EVERYBODY at the office, at the cafe, etc. offers you some sort of participation (an office 10th, or a smaller part in other people's 10th, like for example a participation in the number of your colleagues' son soccer team, etc.)
    And the ads for it may start as soon as October!

  7. DOJ
    November 25th, 2008 at 6:29 pm

    limited tickets? only 200 a piece?
    sounds like you could buy every ticket for just a small fraction of the prize money given out

    what am I missing?

  8. Rocky Rook
    November 25th, 2008 at 8:54 pm

    What a waste of money. The chances have to be soooo low.

  9. vero4902
    November 25th, 2008 at 10:01 pm

    That's pretty cool - RI is doing something similar for the first time: a million dollar lottery, limited tix, drawing on New Years Eve... sounds simalar, except the tickets are affordable!!

  10. Mar
    November 26th, 2008 at 4:33 am

    The "El gordo" lottery is HUGE here in Spain. It's traditional in offices to split the costs of a number, and of people to give out "décimos" as gifts to loved ones in the days leading to Christmas. A lot of business, sports clubs, and associations of all kinds and sorts (from political parties to choirs to soccer teams to church groups to gay bars) sell or give out "participaciones", which are smaller fractions of a "décimo". All the Spanish tv stations follow the drawing of the numbers on the morning of the 22nd and then move on to the lottery shops where the biggest prizes have been won to record the people celebrating there. The drawing is a very popular event, and people queue at the door of the building where it's held all night long to get a good seat (arguably, you have to be a bit obsessive to that). The numbers are drawn by the children at the School of San Ildefonso, a charity school for orphans, and they sing the chosen number in a very particular sing song, repeating the number and the prize (it lost a little of its musicality when we switched to euros).

    And if after all you don't get a prize at El Gordo, you have a new chance at El Niño, which is nearly as popular, and it's held on January 6th.

  11. tomassino
    November 26th, 2008 at 9:18 am

    the winners of the "el Gordo" dont pay any taxes

  12. Santi
    November 26th, 2008 at 10:11 am

    Hi

    AS spaniard I have few thing to say:

    First off all lotery money only es free of taxes first year, after you have to pay like everybody else

    Everybody plays , and I mean everybody, 98% it's too low, only ill people dooesn't play

    It's a way for small organizations to raise some money, the sell you a participation of 2 euros but you pay 3 Euros.

    Some shops sell or give you small participations as a way to spead out luck. It's not well considerate to charge any money if you are a bussines .

    It you buy all the tickets yo people at the job, in the bar, the bakery, th buchery, etc.. you'll probably are going to spend around 200 euros,so people try to keep it down.

    It's also a tradition to buy a number for tour family and friends as a gift or exchanging number, ahd you have to be carefull and let them to know the number before he 22th of December, Lotery day and fisrt day of Chistmas holidays for the children

    The 22th all the tv are showwing the happy winners. The price have change the economy of some areas , normally in the mountains have buid new bussines change he houses, etc...

    This village called Sort (luck in catalan) is named like way for centurys, but they have sold the lucky number so many times because after the first price people started going there to see if there any chance... The owner of the "lottery shop" as become so rich to create a small plane company.

    The most popular phase on 22th is:

    We haven´t won the lottery but at least we are healthy...

    So, that all folks, and "Buena Suerte" "Good Look"

  13. El Gordo Syndicates
    December 1st, 2008 at 9:58 am

    On the 4th of December 2008 e-Lottery will be launching a series of El Gordo syndicates so that people all around the world can take part in this great lottery. Due to the way in which the syndicates have been designed, players are GUARANTEED to win a cash prize.

    e-Lottery has registered more than 190,000 players since its launch in 2002. The current product range includes both EuroMillions and UK lotto syndicates with the El Gordo becoming the third lottery addition.

  14. loteria de navidad
    December 1st, 2008 at 7:54 pm

    You can check your lottery numbers at this link

  15. El Gordo
    December 9th, 2008 at 3:29 am

    "What a waste of money. The chances have to be soooo low."

    But there are actually millions of prizes, not to mention hundreds of jackpot prizes - so the odds aren't as bad as you might think.

  16. Loteria de Navidad
    December 11th, 2008 at 2:05 pm

    You can also check lottery numbers here and the places where your favorite number is available

  17. gops
    December 17th, 2008 at 12:43 pm

    What is meant by series? Does all 195 series identical?

  18. petersy
    May 7th, 2009 at 9:29 am

    If you play in an e-Lottery syndicate, you get at least 3 guaranteed prizes.

  19. petertowey
    June 22nd, 2009 at 6:17 pm

    As well as the massive El Gordo Christmas draw, the Spanish Lottery also enjoys a large Superdaw that takes place every single month. The next Spanish Lottery Superdraw to take place is the big Summer Draw called the "Sorteo Extraordinario" - July Extraordinary draw - which takes place in Spain on Saturday, 4th July 2009.

    Once again e Lottery have a limited number of tickets available. This means that anyone around the world can take part in the lottery and with e-Lottery, cash prizes are GUARANTEED when playing this game.

    Global Lottery Review has reviewed eLottery and believe this offers the best chances of winning on these Spanish Superdraws as well as in the UK Lotto and EuroMillions – the other 2 main lotteries offered by e Lottery and VWD.

    To read the full review, go to: http://www.global-lottery-review.com

  20. loteria de navidad 2009
    September 30th, 2009 at 8:37 am

    there is not a better and easier way to check your numbers than in the abc.es website


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