There are only 3 days left in which to buy your "Loteria de Navidad" or El Gordo lottery tickets - the annual draw takes place on the 22nd December and this year that day falls on Sunday. The prize pot stands at 2.24 billion euros and apparently, 98% of Spanish adults will take part!
You can almost feel the excitement in the air as you walk past long queues outside the lottery shops and kiosks - ticket sales will close at 5pm on Saturday 21st. The Spanish will be glued to their television sets and all the local bars will have the live draw taking place, playing in the background.

The tickets are pre-printed with a 5 digit number - it´s not like the other lotteries where you can pick your own numbers. 100,000 tickets are printed and each ticket is printed in numerous series or sets, with one ticket divided up into ten decimos - you can buy either an individual ticket for 20 euros or the entire sheet, which would set you back 200 euros. This explains why there are always so many winners on the day - this year for the first time any winnings over 2,500 euros will be taxed at 20%. A survey carried out on the streets of Madrid found that less people are taking part this year - in part due to the financial crisis and also because of the introduction of 20% tax on big wins. Many repeated the same words - the real lottery these days is to have work! One lottery seller said whereas in previous years people would buy four or five decimos they now only buy one.

Lottery kiosk displaying El Gordo tickets

The draw takes place at the Teatro Real de Madrid in Madrid and is broadcast live on Spanish TV channel "La 1"  and on the internet from 8am - the draw starts at 9am. The first ever El Gordo took place in 1812 in the city of Cadiz, but since 1814 it has taken place in the capital. The numbers are picked out of two massive spheres and sung out by 40 students from the San Ildefonso school - the entire draws takes about 3 hours. To help you gauge the size of the giant drums, 100,000 small wooden balls, each printed with a 5 digit ticket number are placed in one of them. A laser is used to mark the numbers and the balls are all exactly 19mm in diameter and weigh 3 grams each. The second drum has the prize amounts.

There are many superstitions and traditions about picking "the" winning number - lucky dates are often used and certain numbers sell out very quickly. Over the last few years Benidorm has sold a number of the big prize tickets and people tend to then flock to those outlets thinking of them as lucky. Its great fun and many friends and neighbours club together to form syndicates to increase their chances..... Good Luck or as they say in Spanish Buena Suerte and remember, if you don´t win on this one you can always try your hand at the other big Christmas lottery, the "El Niño" which takes place on 6th January! Remember, 5pm on Saturday is the deadline for buying your tickets.