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!
By the way, the imagen doesn't correspond to a "El Gordo" ticket but to a "El niño" one.
I like the "children singing the winners" - they should do that at the track.
And the ads for it may start as soon as October!
sounds like you could buy every ticket for just a small fraction of the prize money given out
what am I missing?
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.
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"
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.
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.
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