Christmas Lottery in Spain Broke All Sales Records

Posted: November 24, 2011

Updated: October 4, 2017

Spain is struggling to find its way back to good economic standing, but the lottery activity seems to be unaffected by crisis

Christmas lottery in Spain has just broken the sales record for the annual El Gordo (the Fat One), operating in full compliance with Spanish gambling laws. The much anticipated lottery draw will award over EUR 2.5 billion this year to be split amongst over 1.2 million cash winners.

The top winner will claim over EUR 4 million, a thirty three percent jump over last year. The lottery tickets are sold in units, and the smallest one is decimo – a tenth of a ticket, which is sold for EUR 20. The winning numbers will be drawn on December 22nd.

Loterias y Apuestas del Estado, the official operator of the lottery, told Spain gambling news that the sales of this year’s draw are expected to match those of last year or even surpass them. All this is despite the raging economic crisis in the country.

Over ninety percent of Spaniards enjoy the annual Christmas lottery. The practices of pooling money with colleagues or friends are widespread and sometimes yield results.

The place where lots of superstitious Spanish lottery fans prefer to buy their tickets is the village of Sort ("luck" in Catalan). The lottery officials in the village have already reported record traffic and crowds, the El Gordo tickets there are sold out.

Some industry experts attribute the increased interest in lottery to absence of online casinos in Spain, which are due to go live any time soon, following a much anticipated change in gambling regulations this year.

Foreign gaming operators are expected to flood the attractive Spanish gaming market as soon as the doors open. Many have already set up partnerships with Spanish companies to ease the entrance onto the market.

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