The world’s biggest Christmas lottery in Spain paid out €2.32 billion on 22nd December to hundreds of lucky winners across Spain – including Alicante.
El Gordo Spanish Christmas Lottery Winners
The winning top prize of El Gordo number was 79250 which appeared on 1,950 tickets, each of which wins €300,000. It was sold mostly in Barcelona, but other cities including Madrid and Alicante shared in the joy. While other draws around the world have bigger individual top prizes, El Gordo is ranked as the world’s richest lottery for the total sum paid out.
El Gordo
In a nationally televised draw that lasted for over three hours, the winning number for the top prize was sung out just before 11.15am by two of Madrid’s Saint Ildefonso School pupils who then held up the tiny balls holding the numbers to inspectors monitoring the draw.
Jose Antonio Maldonado, the owner of a bar which sold 600 of the winning tickets said “I have never cried so much in my life as I did this morning,” said “I know of many cases of people who were drowning because of the crisis and they won the lottery in my bar. I feel like Robin Hood. I will continue working and paying my mortgage but I will be happier,” added Jose, who also owned one of the winning tickets.
Alicante El Gordo Winner In Alicante
32-year-old Ecuadorean Piedad Arevalo’s 17-year-old daughter Rosa won €300,000 in the lottery thanks to a ticket she bought in Alicante. “The money will come in handy,” she told reporters. Tickets cost €20 each and they go on sale in July. With 70% of the sales going to prizes and the rest going into state coffers, the state lottery agency estimates per capita spending of €59.74 on El Gordo this year. So if you are renting a holoiday villa in Gran Alacant, Alicante on holiday in June, why not buy a Spanish Christmas Lottery ticket?!
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