Well, it’s that time of year again. Christmas is fast approaching, the high street is gearing up in their usual frenetic way with holly, Santas, cheesy music (isn’t it still November?) and the lottery that goes by the name of The Fat One is fast approaching, otherwise known as “El Gordo”.
For many lottery fanatics, El Gordo is the biggest event of the year: tickets have just gone on sale for this: Spain’s El Gordo lottery, the world’s fattest lottery game. The prize fund this year is forecast to top an astonishing €2.5 billion (not enough to clear the national debt though!).
The good news is that you can play El Gordo even if you are a UK resident. Overseas players from other countries can now play El Gordo online.
El Gordo 2011 is gearing up to be the fattest ever when it’s drawn on December 22nd. The whole of España goes nuts for the draw’ it s a national institution. The official name of the draw is El Gordo de La Primitiva – with Spaniards queuing for hours to get their tickets.
El Gordo is the world’s oldest and largest lottery raffle, attracting TV audiences in excess of 20 million for the 3 hour draw programme. The beauty of ElGordo is the prize distribution. You have a great chance of winning, with a little shy of 200 millionaires expected to be created, winning an average of €3 million each.
An incredible 98% of Spain’s adult population buy an El Gordo ticket and players from around the world can also get in on the act online.
Each El Gordo book is split into 10 tickets. You can buy 1 or more of these, all the way up to a full book. Many punters (especially in Spain) play in groups to bring down the cost an increase their odds of winning.
An El Gordo book splits into 10 decimas (or tenths). You can either buy an whole book (for the arenaline junkies), or play a number of decimas from either the same book or from a selection of different book.
Online players from other countries are as up for this lotto as the Spanish these days. There are literally billions up for grabs for players from around the world.
Due to its size, the draw for El Gordo can be complex. Each number, (from 00000 to 99999), can be sold up to 195 times, meaning that the each prize – including the jackpot – is won by almost 200 tickets, There are 6 prize levels of at least €1,000 per winning ticket.
