Christmas lottery draw 2023
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Malaga
Friday, 22 December 2023, 06:56
Spain’s highly-anticipated state Christmas lottery with the famous El Gordo jackpot prize will be drawn today (22 December) as the whole of Spain will come to a stop to watch schoolchildren sing the winning numbers at the Madrid theatre where the spectacle is staged.
The country's special Christmas lottery is all about sharing, with 2.59 billion euros up for grabs this year, some 70 million more than last year, divided into more than 26 million prizes - although the majority of these involve getting your money back. The increase in prizes is due to the fact that the number of series has been increased from 180 to 185. As a result, since 12 July, 185 million 'decimos' (tenths) to the value of 3.7 billion euros, of which 70 per cent will be distributed in prizes.
The draw itself goes on for around four hours this Friday, and will be broadcast live on TV with on-going coverage on radio and online.
The undoubted stars of the ceremony are the children from the San Ildefonso school in Madrid, who sing the winning numbers and their corresponding prizes. The youngsters carefully catch the balls that are released from the two large drums and call out the numbers on them to the familiar tune that has been the soundtrack for the 22 December lottery for more than 300 years.
Winning tickets
The location where the big winning tickets were sold are revealed almost as soon as the top prize numbers come out of the revolving drums. This information has always played an important role in this lottery, with people traditionally buying their tickets when visiting places that have a record of selling high-value winning tickets.
One thing that has not changed this year is the value of the prizes to be distributed. The lucky people who own a tenth of the El Gordo number will get 400,000 euros; if it is the second prize, 125,000 euros; the third, 50,000 euros; fourth, 20,000 euros and fifth, 6,000 euros. These last two prizes are exempt from tax to the Treasury as they are less than 40,000 euros. For the rest of the prizes you must pay 20 per cent of the winning amount minus that amount in tax. For example, from the first prize, the tax authorities keep 72,000 euros (20% of 360,000), while the lucky person takes 328,000 euros. If it is the second prize, the winner takes 108,000 euros and the Treasury, 17,000 euros.
The state lottery organiser (Selae) estimates that the expenditure per person for this year's Christmas lottery will be 71.67 euros, around two euros more than in 2022. By region, Castilla y León is the highest with 113.53 euros per inhabitant, followed by La Rioja (108.4), Asturias (107.37), Aragón (96.64) and Cantabria (94.52). At the other end of the scale are Melilla and Ceuta (16.52 euros and 17.35), the Balearic Islands (41.66), the Canary Islands (45.74) and Catalonia (55.49).
But don't worry if you don’t win the El Gordo this Christmas, there’s always the El Niño, the similar, but less well known, lottery draw that could bring you some extra cash in the new year on 6 January.
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