El Spanish Lottery 2022

December is the month of the Three Kings Lotteries. Thousands of Spanish lottery players try their luck with El Gordo de Navidad and El Niño. Long queues in front of the store are the result of these very popular lotteries. Actually, the tension rises when Christmas approaches. Will you end the year as a new millionaire?

One of the greatest lottery countries
Great Britain is not the only country where it’s citizens love to take a gamble. People in Spain love it just as much because of El Gordo de Navidad and El Niño. These are the most famous lotteries in the country, but definitely not the only ones you can participate in. Other famous names are La Primitiva, Bonoluto, ONCE and La Grossa. You also have the National Lottery and EuroMillions for international players as well. So you have a lot to choose from. How more lotteries you participate in, how bigger the chance you win a lot of money.

La Grossa lottery in Catalonia

Catalonia is an autonomous region of Spain, although it strives to be independent. It’s independent strike is also shown by the lotteries that are organized. Since 2013 Catalonia has its own lottery called ‘La Grossa’. It’s organized around New Years Eve and a draw takes place at December 31th. Perhaps you become rich at the last day of the year thanks to this lottery! A ticket for La Grossa costs 5 euro each. Because of the cheap prize it comes as no surprise that about 6,8 million tickets are sold every year. Participants can win 5 big prizes, namely 20,000, 6500, 3000, 1000 or 500 euros.
Choose your lucky numbers at the Bonolito lottery
Perhaps you’re not having a lot of money, but becoming rich is still a dream of you. In that case buying a ticket for the Bonolito lottery might be a good idea, because a ticket only costs 59 cents! You can participate in this lottery multiple days a week. Bonolito draws take place on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. For a one day ticket you pay 59 cents and multiple days costs 2,38 euros. This last option definitely increases your winning chances. It can be helpful if you have a favorite number, because for this lottery it’s required to pick six numbers for your ticket. A good tips: the number 5 is chosen a lot. You win the Jackpot is your ticket numbers match with the ones that appear during the draw. There are some differences with La Primitiva as well. The winnings are spread on multiple days instead of two. According to studies, this increases your winning chance.

Win millions with El Gordo

Perhaps you think that it’s very difficult to become rich. For some people the opposite is true. There have been lucky players who bought a lottery ticket of 50 cents and became rich during a lottery draw. How easy can it be? A lottery ticket doesn’t have to be expensive. They’re already sold at 50 cents, but multiple tickets for 100 or 200 euros is possible as well. You have to find the right lottery to increase your winning chances. Some research might help you. After a research you will probably find out that ‘El Gordo’ is a well-known lottery in Spain. ‘El Gordo’ actually means ‘The Fat One’ and after you’ve participated it becomes clear why this nickname has been given. Main reason is that players can win millions of euros. Because of that thousands of people participate in this lottery during December. All of Spain is watching the lottery draw live on television. Christmas is not only the most beautiful, but also the most exciting time of the year for them. Who knows if you’re going to be among the people who becomes rich in an instant!

El Gordo de La Primitiva

One El Gordo ticket isn’t very cheap, namely 200 euros. Do not be put off by this. It’s also possible to buy a part of the ticket for 20 euros. These parts are known as ‘décimos’ and give everyone the possibility to participate in this lottery. Perhaps you’re willing to share the prize money if you win. In that case it might be smart to participate together with your friends and/or family members. El Gordo takes only place during Christmas. This is not your only chance to win money though. Every Sunday a draw with smaller prizes is organized as well, known as ‘El Gordo de La Primitiva’. A ticket for this lottery only costs 1,50 euros. The ticket prize is not the only difference between this lottery and it’s bigger brother. Unlike El Gordo, you can choose your own lottery numbers over there. Pick your six favorite number or let them be generated automatically by the computer if you find it difficult to choose. Good luck!

The special ONCE lottery

Every person above 18 can participate in a Spanish lottery. Even people with disabilities are given a chance to win a lot of money. They usually participate in ONCE, which is an organization for the blind and partially-sighted. ONCE stands for ‘Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles, translated as The National Organization of Spanish blind people. This makes ONCE different than any other lottery. The tickets aren’t even sold at retailers or online. Instead, people with a handicap sell them in their own kiosks on the street. It’s also special because most of the inlay goes to charity. Unlike other lotteries, this organization doesn’t focus on profits.

Lottery ticket for ONCE

A ticket for this special lottery only costs 1,50 euros. Friday and Sunday form an exception with a ticket price of 2 euros because then bigger prize money can be won. You should definitely participate during the draw on the first Friday and Sunday of the month. On these days a special big prize is given away. Tickets this occasion costs 2,50 euros, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t try! Every ONCE ticket has five numbers that are already printed and three numbers in a series. The maximum prize is 300.000 euro. To win this great amount of money all the numbers on your ticket have to match with those that appear during the lottery draw. The three series numbers need to match as well. You win 2,50 euros when there’s a match with just one number. With two or three correct numbers you win bigger prizes. Did you win a great prize? Congratulations! Claim your prize at de Banco de España. Smaller prizes can be claimed at the ONCE kiosks.

The high Jackpot of EuroMillions
International lotteries are organized in Spain as well. Especially EuroMillions attracts thousands of people. This is a lottery that is organized in several European countries at the same time. One of the advantages of this is the fact that the inlay of the participating countries is added together. This leads to an incredibly high Jackpot! What’s more, the minimum Jackpot is 15 million euros. The EuroMillions Jackpot takes place every Tuesday and Friday. So make sure that you’re in front of the television these days. During the draws 5 balls out of 50 numbered balls appear. There are also two ‘star numbers’ drawn out of 11 numbered balls, that ranges from 1 to 11. Obviously it can’t be a party every week, so sometimes there’s no Jackpot hit. In that case the prize money is increased for next time. This also means that the EuroMillions Jackpot can rise to great heights. 75, 100 or 180 million is no exception. The winner doesn’t even have to pay a gambling tax on his or her prize!

Announcement of the winners
Big lotteries like the National Lottery and El Gordo announce their winners live on television and on the radio. You also receive a notification after winning a nice amount of money. This is not the case with every lottery though. Smaller organizations like La Grossa form an exception. Winners of this lottery are mentioned in local papers. You can also visit the kiosk where the tickets are sold to find out if you’ve won something. However, there is a special television program send out after the evening news about the ONCE lottery. Make sure you watch this and see if you make a great start in 2018!

Spain has a lot of great traditions. One of them is the Spanish Christmas Lottery. In the Spanish lottery it sounds even better, namely ‘Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad’ or ‘Lotería de Navidad’. Not only the name of the lottery is special, but also its history. The Spanish lottery is more than 200 years old. It was organized for the very first time in 1812 by a branch of the Spanish Public Administration. However, it took until 1892 before the name ‘Sorteo de Navidad’ was used.

Second oldest lottery

The ‘Lotería de Navidad’ is the second oldest lottery in the world that still exists as of today. It even survived the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939. Back then it was organized in Valencia instead of the Spanish capital of Madrid, because the latter was attacked by the enemy. The popular lottery continued under the regime of dictator Francisco Franco.

El Gordo Lotto

The nickname of the Spanish lottery is ‘El Gordo’, which means ‘The Big One’. It is known all over the world. “El Gordo” basically means “The first prize”. The nickname hasn’t dropped out of the blue, because ‘El Gordo’ Jackpot is an astonishing 720 million euros. Not only the Spanish, but also people from abroad can take part in the Christmas lottery. So even if you’re living in Belgium or Iceland you shouldn’t definitely try to win.

Confusion
Obviously the Spanish Christmas Lottery isn’t the only one to have an “El Gordo”. Other well-known lotteries, like Sorteo de El Nino, has a big first prize as well. Lately there has been quite some confusion about the nickname, because a new lottery called “El Gordo de La Primitiva” has been established. Both lotteries have nothing do with each other. The only thing they have in common is that they’re both organized by the Loterías y Apuestas del Estado organization and that you can win a lot of money.

Very lucrative lottery

The Spanish Christmas Lottery is not only one of the oldest, but also one of the most lucrative lotteries in the world. A big part of the millions of tickets that are sold (only in 2015 already 18 million pre-printed tickets were on sale) goes to the prizes. What is more, about 2,5 billion euros is available for the prizes. This is about 70 %!
In the year 2013, the highest prizes of “El Gordo” were as following:
Prizes Prize money Number of balls drawn
First prize (El Gordo) 4 million euros 1
Second Prize 1,2 million euros 1
Third prize 500,000 euros 1
Fourth prizes 200,000 euros 2
Fifth prizes 60,000 euros 8
La Pedrea 1000 euros 1794

La Pedrea

‘La Pedrea’ relates to the small prizes that are drawn. 1000 euros is still a nice prize. Or perhaps a bigger amount of money will be yours. For example, when you’re lucky enough to have two consecutive numbers, so one before and one after, a prize of 20.000 awaits. Good luck!

December lottery

The Christmas Lottery draw always takes place in December. This has been the case since 1812. The draw procedures haven’t changed a lot in the past 200 years, although the location can be different sometimes. For example, in 2010 and 2011 the El Gordo draw took place in the Palacio Municipal de Congresos in the capital of Madrid. However, in 2012 the Teatro Real in Madrid took the limelight as the location of highly anticipated lottery draw.

Where could i buy tickts?

The tickets of this amazing lottery are called “billetes” in Spanish. They have five numbers printed on it, ranging from 00000 to #99999. Each ticket has multiple numbers and is part of a series. For example you could have a ticket with “Series 001 Ticket 0000”. “001” stands for the number of series that is printed in a certain year. This way of organizing makes it possible to sell hundreds of thousands of lottery tickets year after year. In one year the number of series can be quite high. For example, in 2015 the lottery sold 180 series of 100.000 tickets. In that year about 18 million tickets of 200 euros were available. How more tickets are sold, how more money available for prizes.
Number of tickets and series
The exact number of tickets and series is different every year. For example, in 2011 there were 100.000 different numbers in 180 euros. However, in 2004 there were only 66.000 different numbers in 195 series. So you never know what the quantity is going to be next years. The distribution of the prizes can be different as well. For example, in 2011 the Jackpot money increased from 3 million euros to 4 million euros. Second prize winners also received more than ever, namely 1,2 million euros. In the year before this had been 1 million euros. Even the Fifth Prizes increased from 50.000 to 60.000 euros. The increase was definitely good news for the Spanish lottery players!
“Décimo”: purchase a part of the ticket
Lottery players can purchase several types of tickets, including one of 200 euros. For a lot of people that’s too expensive. This is why sub-tickets, known as “décimos” are also sold for 20 euros. With each “décimo” you can win 10 % of the prize that has fallen on the ticket. This is the reason why almost every Spanish person takes part in the Christmas lottery. Some of them never gamble in the rest of the year. They also share their tickets with family or friends.

Participations

Interestingly enough, there are even smaller portions of the tickets available. These are known as “participations”. A lot of organizations purchase these tickets and sell the “participations” to their customers. Some companies also give the tickets to their employees. It’s really easy to participate. You only have to write the number and what you pay on the ticket. This is a proof of participation.
Donation to companies
Usually the price of the “participation” tickets is very low. Instead, the employees need to give a small donation to the company or organization. You can win a lot of money with your ticket, though. Every winner receives a proportional amount of the prize payout. If you’ve paid a lot, the amount of prize money will be much higher.
Singing children
One of the most interesting things about this lottery is that young children from the San Illdefonso School draw the numbers and prizes. This school was an big orphanage in the past The Christmas Lottery always uses a system with two vessels. Interestingly enough, ‘El Gordo’ is the only one that uses it that way. The other draws of the Spanish lottery take place within five vessels. In the rest of year ten balls, ranging from 0 to 9, are drawn. A player wins when his five numbers on the ticket correspond with the balls that are drawn.

Long procedure
The numbers are shown on small wooden balls that contain unique numbers, ranging from 00000 to 99999. They’re part of a vessel that in total contains an astonishing 1807 balls!. The boys and girls deliver the results by singing. One of the children signs the winning number, while the other child sings the prize that is connected with it. The signing goes on until all the balls and numbers have been taken. It’s a long procedure that takes hours. Of course the children don’t have to do this all on their own. After 8 or 9 shifts, the children are replaced by others.

Major prize
Sometimes a major prize is drawn. Great news, because it means that someone in Spain has become very rich or even a millionaire. In case this happens, the children sing the number multiple times. Then they show the balls to a special committee and a fixed camera. After this process the balls are inserted into a frame. It’s definitely an unique event to witness.

Inscriptions
Each ball has an inscription with a prize. These inscriptions are very carefully made with a laser. It as a rule that all the balls have a weight of 3 g and a diameter of 18.8 mm. The number of balls relating to the prizes differs. Obviously there’s just one ball for ‘El Gordo’, the second prize and the third prize. Two balls show the fourth prizes, and 8 balls the fifth prizes. So how lower the prize, how more balls there are of it. In total there are 1794 balls for ‘La Padrea’, also known as the small prizes. The numbers on the balls are always shown to the public before they are put in the vessels. It makes sure that every number takes part in the draw.

Lucky winners

In the past there have been some lucky winners in the Spanish Christmas Lottery. For example, in 2012 someone won the “El Gordo” jackpot of 4 million euros! 76058 was his or her lucky ticket number. People with the ticket numbers 76057 and 76059 were lucky as well, because they won 20.000 euros. 1000 euro was given to people with the ticket numbers 76000 and 76099. These tickets all had the first three digits of “El Gordo” and ended with 58. People who only had the ‘8’ as the last number received 200 euros.

Live coverage of the draw

It’s a tradition that the lottery winners donate some money to the San Illdefonso School. Millions of people are watching the events live on television. It is broadcasted by the Televisión Española and on the radio by Radio Nacional de España. Of course you could also visit the draw for real. You do need to get dressed in quite extravagant clothing though!

Odds of winning

Because of the prize structure, the odds of winning in this lottery aren’t very small. In other lotteries it’s much lower actually. The chance of winning El Gordo is 0,001 %, which doesn’t seem much. However, if you compare it to EuroMillions, with a winning chance of 0.0000000086 %, it’s not the worst. Most of the time the lottery tickets are only sold for one or two numbers. It means that the big winners often live in the same town. Sometimes they’re even colleagues. A good example of this is the small town of Grañén, Huesca in 2011. Only 2000 people are living here. A lot of them became millionaire when El Gordo was sold entirely in the town! Other big wins in the past few years are the following:

Winning city/town Prize Year
Barcelona 414 million euros 2010
Madrid, Tenerife, Alicante, Palencia, Zaragoza, Cáceres, Guipúzcoa 585 million euros 2010
Vic, Catolonia 500 million euros (300.000 euros per winning décimo) 2005

Even out the costs or try another lottery
Obviously every Spanish lottery participant wants to win a big prize. However, if you’re not so lucky it would as least be nice to even out the costs. The odds of evening out the costs are about 10 %, whereas the chance of winning more money is about 5.3 %. One of the advantages of getting your money back is that you can invest your money again. For example, you could try your luck in the so-called Sorteo de El Niño, which is also a very important draw in Spain. It always takes place on January 6, before the feast of the Epiphany of Jesus Christ.