There will be another huge spectacle in Spain today when the winning numbers of the traditional Christmas lottery are determined. Millions of Spaniards sit in front of their televisions and prick up their ears as children sing out the winning numbers in the world’s oldest lottery at the Teatro Real in Madrid. As every year on December 22nd, the task, which is also an honor, falls to students between the ages of 8 and 14 from the venerable San Ildefonso boarding school.
Four hours of TV broadcast
The tradition of auditions began in the 19th century, but girls have only been allowed to sing winning numbers since 1984. They have been practicing every two days since October so that everything works like clockwork on Friday. The little ones are still likely to have stage fright, because performing in front of millions of people watching spellbound would make even most adults sweat profusely.
The TV broadcast lasts around four hours, with every step of the draw being followed meticulously. A large grid ball contains 100,000 small wooden balls, each with five numbers from 00000 to 99999, and a smaller ball contains 1807 balls with the prices. The choreography is always the same. Each individual ball is shown by a child, the value is sung and then recorded. The lottery’s most loyal supporters are sitting in the auditorium; some of them have queued for days to get a seat. Some are elaborately disguised, everyone holds their breath with each new ball.
Especially lots of prizes
The lottery, which was founded more than 200 years ago, is characterized by a particularly large number of prizes, almost 2,000, which are not as dizzyingly large as some other lotteries. Because so many people win something, the joy and fun of the spectacle is enormous every year. The main prize, called “El Gordo” (the fat one), is four million euros for a whole ticket. It will be paid out 185 times this year because every single one of the 100,000 ticket numbers was sold just as many times. The smallest win is 9999 times, but then you only get your stake back.
Since most people only buy a tenth ticket for 20 euros, they are entitled to 400,000 euros for the Gordo. But before that, the state takes action and deducts 20 percent taxes from all profits of 40,000 euros or more. Of the 400,000 euros, 328,000 euros would then be paid out. In total there were tickets worth 3.7 billion euros. Almost 2.6 billion euros in profits will be paid out this year.
