Christmas lottery »El Gordo« brings prizes to many Spaniards

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Because of "El Gordo": Celebrating people with the winning number in Madrid

Photo: ISABEL INFANTES / REUTERS

The Spanish Christmas Lottery brought many Spaniards prizes again this year.

In the morning, as is traditional, a boarding school student sang the winning number of the top prize for »El Gordo« (»The Fat One«), for which there are four million euros, at the Teatro Real in Madrid.

One lucky winner was even sitting in the hall: a Peruvian immigrant almost fainted with joy and had to be cared for by medical staff in the meantime.

After she had caught herself, she showed her tenth ticket with the winning number of "Gordo", for which she was entitled to 400,000 euros minus taxes.

“I knew I was going to win this year.

I dreamed it,' she exclaimed, stunned.

"I'll be able to buy an apartment and finance my children's studies, that's the most important thing to me," she announced.

“And another part is for the church.

I'm very Catholic,' said the woman who had bought several tickets.

She doesn't want to go back to Peru, where the situation is currently so difficult.

The total of 180 tickets with the number of the main prize were sold in 20 different lottery offices across the country, as reported by Spanish media.

Since most people only buy a tenth ticket for 20 euros, they are entitled to 400,000 euros for the »Gordo«.

Before that, however, the state deducts around 20 percent of taxes from all profits.

A total of 3.6 billion euros were sold tickets - and 2.52 billion euros in prizes were distributed.

That makes the Treasury the main winner.

This is the oldest lottery in the world, having been held in Cadiz for the first time in 1812.

aeh/dpa