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'The Fat One' gives out $3.2bn
22/12/2007 16:59 - (SA)
Madrid - Spain's "El Gordo" - the world's biggest lottery - gave out €2.2bn ($3.2bn) in Christmas prizes on Saturday.
El Gordo, Spanish for "The Fat One", is designed so that as
many people as possible across Spain get a festive windfall.
The top prize this year was €3m - going to the
series of tickets with the magic number 06381.
Because the tickets are sold in a series of 10, only those
who paid €200 for the whole strip get the full prize. A
total of 185 series of tickets bear the winning number.
The biggest share of winning tickets was bought by people in
the town of Nava, in the northwestern Asturias region.
But some also went to the traditionally lucky Catalan town
of Sort (Luck) where a tradition of winners has made it a
popular place to buy tickets - and increased its chances of
winning.
The draw brings Spain to a virtual standstill for more than
three hours as pairs of children from Madrid's San Ildefonso
school take turns to sing out the winning numbers and the amount
won. Lotteries have two centuries of history in Spain.
The country spent €2.87bn on the lottery - 5.7% more than last year. Seventy percent is paid out in
prizes. Most of the rest goes in costs.
Spaniards often choose lottery numbers matching significant
dates although there was no particular favourite in 2007.
In 2006, one of the most sought after series was 22105, the
date on which Fernando Alonso became Formula 1 world champion
for the second year running.
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