Luxury Real Estate

Courtesy of Kirsty Bryson of Luxury Homes by VAPF

Called “El Gordo”, which literally means “The fat one”, the whole country comes to a standstill every 22^nd of December, glued to the TV screen or the radio, wishing for their number to be called out by one of the children on stage, boosting their bank accounts and turning many instantly into millionaires. This date is symbolically the start of the Christmas festivities, the last day at school for the kids for that year and for many workers also their last day at their job until the New Year.

With a top prize this year of 4 million euros, the 40 children chosen to “sing” out the winning numbers always proceed from the San Idelfonso School, a government subsidized boarding school for children whose families have socio-economic difficulties, the majority of which are immigrants. They spend months preparing for what is to be their big day and their voices have become the most famous soundtrack in the country.

The Spanish lottery was instituted by King Carlos III in 1763, and Spain has been hooked ever since. Not even the Civil War managed to get in the way of "El Gordo" - in fact, during the war there were two national lotteries, one on either side of the front lines. Tickets go on sale in July with 85,000 numbers issued for each of the 185 series. Each whole ticket (priced at 200 €) is then further sub-divided into décimos – a tenth part of a whole ticket- which is what most people settle for. Often, these décimo tickets are split into even smaller shares, divided between friends, workmates or relatives. In total, more than 157 million décimo tickets are on sale.

All in all, 2,520 million euros will be handed out in 25.5 million prizes, so it’s no wonder that the average Spaniard will spend around 100 euros on lottery tickets for this famous draw! Fingers will be crossed at the Grupo VAPF head offices as we all hope for a great start to our annual Xmas holidays!

Merry Christmas to you all and our best wishes for 2012!