E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSMADRID -- After another brutal year of economic hardship, Spaniards across the country are hoping for relief when the country's famed Christmas lottery — the world's richest — pays out $3.3 billion in tax-free awards on Saturday.
Almost everyone in the country of 46 million people will be glued to live TV to watch school children sing out the winning numbers for the lottery that pays out maximum prizes of $529,840 and many more for smaller amounts. The top prize is dubbed "El Gordo" ("The Fat One") and is likely to be won by hundreds if not thousands of players.
Unlike other big lotteries that generate just a few big winners, Spain's lottery — now in its 200th year — has always aimed for a share-the-wealth-system rather than a single jackpot, and thousands of numbers yield at least some kind of return.
The Christmas lottery is so popular that there are frequently three $26 tickets sold for every Spaniard, and the lottery itself is the unofficial kickoff of the holiday season.
Hard-hit Spanish town celebrates after $940 million 'El Gordo' win
"A lot of people win," said Pablo Foncillas, a marketing professor at the IESE Business School in Madrid. "It's really common even if you don't win to get a free ticket. So many people win that people just keep on playing. Everyone knows someone who's won, even if it's only a little bit."
Hundreds of players lined up daily to buy tickets this week outside the Dona Manuelita lottery store in Madrid, which has often sold winning tickets.
Before Spain's property-led economic boom collapsed in 2008, they had hoped to win so they could buy a small apartment or a car. Now people said they need the money just to hang on to what they have and avoid being evicted or having cars repossessed.
Betting that tickets from Dona Manuelita stood a better chance of winning, unemployed construction company office manager Miguel Angel Ruiz drove 100 miles to buy for a pool of players including his wife and relatives.
"We're buying more hoping we'll hit it so we can emerge from poverty," said Ruiz, 39. "Before the crisis, lottery winnings were to buy an apartment or a car, and now it's to pay debts."
Diego Sanbrano, let go from his waiter's job two months ago, said the Spanish lottery isn't about getting rich and never working again.
"It's to pay off debts and straighten out your life," he said. "You pay the mortgage and make the car payment, and then maybe you have a little left over to go somewhere on vacation."
More world stories from NBC News:
- Germany's latest big export: Christmas markets
- Six-year-old girl shot in face by Taliban and left for dead gets free surgery in US
- Media circus performs at French 'doomsday' village of Bugarach
- Engel, NBC crew believed they wouldn't leave Syria alive
- UN calls for ban on 'grotesque practice' of female genital mutilation
- Video: Syrian refugees speak out on the nightmare of exodus
- UFO lovers, light-seekers and lawyers await Maya end of days
- Rumors of plot to sterilize Muslims spark Pakistan killings
Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
Why make a big deal that thousands of people win...even if only a small amount? Thousands of people win Powerball and Megamillions too. When the Powerball was over $500 million last month, in NY alone there were 902,477 winners.
There were not hundreds to thousands to win over $500,000. Sounds like a pretty cool lottery.
Ya a lot of two and three dollars winner.Who do they think they're kidding..Just in Pa you play the Millioniar game they sell 500,000 tickets at 20 bucks a piece ( thats 100Million they collect ) and they pay out 5.089 milion in prizes....Not bad profit of 94%.. I can see them paying out five million and making 5 million..Hell the Mob pays you better than that....You go and play at the casios and they pay sh*t...
hope they dance and play this...when they draw out the winners...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iDCPCfh_kw
Sorry, maze...but your numbers are just made up. Most lottery payouts are about 80%. AS in, they pay out 80 cents for every dollar they take in. The worst ones are as low as 72%. But nowhere hear the 40% that you claim.
Ray..in that Powerball Drawing, there were 66 people who became instant MILLIONAIRES...more than the top prize in this lottery. Over 500 more won at least $10,000.
You have no idea how many people win that much in this lottery. Like with many lotteries, chances are more of the "winners" is nothing but a free ticket. Not to mention, it is $26 to enter, not just $2 like Powerball.
"emerge from poverty , Ruiz said" WTF poverty in a Socialist Country, the Government must spend more money!!! Mr. Ruiz should take the "CASH" option.
JFkan: You do the math its 94% for the lottery....
A complete ticket cost around $264 USD....a complete ticket has all five digits the same but different serial numbers (at 180 times for same five digits). If you got the winning five digits with a complete ticket (all 180).. you win around $951 million USD.
One tenth of a complete ticket cost around $26 USD..if you got all five digits, you win around $5.3 million USD.
The top prize is awarded 180 times...someone can have all 180 if they brought a complete ticket at $264.
Jori ...
... does your online gimmick site also sell guarenteed-win lottery tickets .... or at least 90%-off retail price ones? If so, then I see how your childish SPAM actually DOES apply to this topic of conversation.
maze you do the math. 500,000 tickets at 20 dollars a piece is 10,000,000 not 100,000,000.
And just think: by the end of Obama's second term, we will be around $21 trillion in debt, so this would cover about what, 9 hours worth of spending then?
This explains a lot about why Spain is broke and largely unemployed.
how about some non made up numbers like your 72-80% figures
I think the lowest rate is 25% for taxes so little math here:
You win 62 cents on the dollar and pay 25% to 45% in taxes = bring home money of 34.1 - 46.5 cents per dollar spent.
Hummm 34.1 + 46.5 = 80.6 / 2 = an avg. of 40.3% looks like someone got close to me.
Just showing you the facts.
Now that the Apocalypse has passed, they will get a chance to spend it.
Maybe telling us the readers here what the odds of winning the main prize would have helped us all compare there lottery to ours are but hey thanks just a guess on my part! Funny how those little details help a story.
dumb
what idiot thought giving billions to 1 or 2 people is smart?
duuuuh
how many million dollar winners were there in these lotteries?
how many could be if the top prize was a cool million
no the lump sum usually goes to one or two people
dduuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh
spread the wealth we have enough greedy billionaires
Please read the article before you comment. The whole article is about how this lottery is designed to have many winners. Largest payout is just over half a million.
To me, this lottery in Spain makes better sense than ours. I would rather see more million dollar winners, than one $5,000,000 dollar winner. That way more people get a good chunck of change rather than just one.
Next headline you'll read on this one:
"Money's all gone, winners screwed out of billions. Who stole the lottery?"
You'll see
Learn to read it doesn't go to one or two. Its just another way of satisfying the people so they don't feel left out when one wins a great sum money alone. Lesson in life not everyone can be a winner.
A lotto coming from a country on the verge of bankruptcy .................... ummm
I'll take the cash pay out now.
Key words......TAX FREE.....Not here.Our greedy gov't has to get they're hands in on it..Every lottery needs to be tax free.We pay enough as it is.
Why should gambling winnings be any different from any other income?
Why should the gov't get a cut every time money changes hands? Property tax, sales tax, income tax, death tax, car tax, boat tax hunting tax, fishing tax, gun tax, home alarm tax, building permit tax, travel tax, car rental tax, mta tax, toll tax and soon to be carbon tax. Would you like me to go on? These vampires we call our elected officials are going to bleed us dry until there is nothing but a shell left. They make me sick.
Well JKFAN.I guess your a political puppet.Boy don't they have the wool pulled over your eyes.Looks like your all for our corrupt and crooked polticians.
This is AT LEAST as moral as investing in stock in a corporation of doubtful integrity or giving your money to a portfolio manager that harvests it in a peanut shell game for personal gain and YOUR loss. Its at least as moral as the US economy based as it is on the vain promise of tomorrow's payment to the tax man and the bank. Its at least as moral as the majority of the con artist and pirates wearing Brooks Brutha suits sitting in banks and board rooms where they view the world below on the streets with disdain and contempt. Where do I get an ElGordo ticket? I and most I know have been jobless now for over three years and ALL of us have college degrees but no opportunity. We are also age 55-65.
Well, I don't have a College Degree (yet...though I hope and intend, perhaps vainly, to earn an "Honorary One"), but - unlike you - I WAS paying attention when Sen. Phil Gramm eviscerated the "Glass-Steagal Act of 1933", as part of the Repuglican Neo-Con Artists's "Contract with America(s' wealthiest One Percent)", in 1999; I DID become concerned - right then and there! - that ANOTHER "Fleecing" of the type that the Bush Brothers, in their Brooks Bruthas (Sorry, Buddhists at Brooks Bruthas.....that was COOL of you, and you know what I mean if you're reading this) suits, executed against Us, The People, in 1987; I DID start to make some noise about it at that time......but You, The Stoopid Suckas of Amerikkka kept on going, "Ooooh, MONICA this, Oooooh, MONICA that....," instead of PAYING ATTENTION TO THE REALLY IMPORTANT STUFF THAT THE "REICHS MINISTRY OF MIS-INFORMATION" WAS USING SUCH TECHNIQUES TO BURY!!!
Correction. Full tickets are $200 Euro each. "Decimos" (partial tickets) are $20 Euro each. Most shop owners (or even just vendors on the street) buy a full ticket, split it up into decimos, add a couple Euro to the price and sell it.
Since there are only 100,000 possible numbers in this lottery, chances of winning are much better than with others.
"MADRID -- After another brutal year of economic hardship, Spaniards across the country..."
Funny how MSN freely makes this comment but hides the fact that the U.S. is following the IDENTICAL economic path that got Spain to where it is today. Likewise, Greece, Portugal...
Gee......I wonder what kind of a return you'd get off of INVESTING $78/year ($26 x 3) in some kind of a Mutual Fund, or a reliable Stock Purchase like IBM or Microsoft or Apple or PayPal/SpaceX?
Probably not as EXCITING as "throwing your money away with much greater certainty".....but almost SURELY the smarter choice, in the long run, by far, eh?!?
First time in the history of the El Gordo lottery a winning first place jackpot ticket was sold online by the web site Ventura24.es very kool! We see history made once again! Congrats to the winner, big time!
The U.S. could use a national lottery. It could be used as in many other countries, to fund high-speed rail, and other infrastructure projects. Prizes could be capped at one million dollars; to allow for maximum winners. It is amazing to me, that we have no high-speed rail, in a country that touts itself, as the envy of all other countries. Why do we not have an alternative to sardine- packed airlines, and crowed interstates? Bring on the national lottery!
The Federal government already gets a cut of the winnings of every Lottery in Income Taxes.
I would buy into a lottery like this in the USA.
lotterys are for Losers.
Then why do we see winners?
That's the kind of lottery we should have here. Three or four Hundred million dollars for one person is too damned much. The lottery here should be split up when it reaches twenty million dollars with Ten million the Max for each person. It would do a hell of a lot more for the economy than One winner with three hundred million dollars. Ten million dollars is enough for anybody.
You are 100% correct. There are way too many losers for each winner. I guess it is human nature to want to "get rich" quick without having to work for it.
'tis most human to loose.
Remember, everyone has a choice, to buy or not buy a ticket.
I am 72 years old from Madrid, and I spent the whole night (here in Az) glue to the television watching the kids from San Ildefonso School sing the numbers and the amount won in each number, something that I been doing since a was 14 years old in Spain. And guess what? I won 25 Euros!
We could learn from the Spaniards. Tired of the all-or-nothing approach such as Power Ball and some larger state lotteries. As I have said all along is that if the wealth were spread it would stimulate more participation and El Gordo has proven that fact.
If the governemnt would quit spending and wasting so damn much ,more could be spread around.Some limits should be place on who,how much and how long we spread around these entitlements to everyone.The entitlements were designed to help those when they were down,not to keep those who take the entitlements down forever.Entitlements shoould come with limitations and rules!Effective rules!
maso98
When you say, government, you are talking about that of the United States?
baby, if i won that i'd get the air conditioner in my car finally fixed.
Spain,The perfect Obama Lottery! Everyone wins.Everyone collects a little and the state and federal governemnt get their share and you have enough left over to take that once in a life time Tijuana vacation.Of,course,you will have to get a loan to pay for your wife to go along with you.But we all need to chip in so the governments can keep running and spending.Who are we to ask these entities to do the right thing by slowing down spending?
If I won a huge lottery,I would give most of it away.The people who recieved my largesse would be individuals who I could find who had worked selfishly for years at trying to creat wealth and those who had been responsible to the community around them.I would hope by making these gifts,the people receiving would use the money responsibly to create more jobs.I would not give a dime to someone under the age of 40 years old.Everyone,in that age group, whom I have met, are just selfish,self centered worthless jerks who would just go out and buy a new car,a gold holder for his ifone,a new wardrobe and go to Vegas.The only wealth he would create would be in Vegas! I would be nice to see creative people use the money to expand the potentials of economy and hire hundreds of people with good paying jobs.Kind of like my own QE5,except mine would work
mas098, maybe the reason why you are not winning the lottery (or, for that matter, would NEVER win the lottery) is because you are needlessly promoting age discrimination against people who are under the age of 40. Perhaps if you would meet me in person, you would think differently of me were you to know me better. By the way, people who were over the age of 40 have been nothing but jerks to me as well as people who have been under the age of 40. Should I become a tool and needlessly judge people due to their age or should I become far more mature than the mere concept of a chronological age and start to judge people by the content of their characters, words, and deeds? You would do well to take my advice and apply it to your own life as well, sir.
Finding a job in Spain is harder than winning the lottery, odd, very odd.
Perhaps instead of having 1 or 2 winners of 364 million Poweball winners we can have 364 one million dollar winners and spread the joy. That would encourage the winners to start a business make a lot more money and the government can tax them and get out of the mess we are in.