Impoverished Spanish city hits the jackpot in El Gordo

With wide smiles, elated lottery winners popped bottles of sparkling wine yesterday in the southern beach city of Roquetas de Mar, where tickets bearing the top prize number in Spain’s Christmas lottery were sold.

The winning number — 79140 — appeared on 1,600 ‘décimo’ tickets in the lottery known as El Gordo (The Fat One), with each of those tickets winning €400,000.

The lottery has taken on special importance in recent years as Spain struggled through a property bubble and the European debt crisis.

The annual event on December 22 unites the country as millions watch the hours-long TV programme to find out if they are among the lucky ones.

El Gordo tickets are sold in lottery sites around the country and the draw pays out a range of prizes — but this year the top tickets were sold entirely by one lottery agent.

Lottery officials say that can happen because people playing the lottery don’t pick their own numbers.

The mayor of Roquetas de Mar called the win great news for his city in the province of Almería, which has an unemployment rate of 31% — significantly higher than the national rate of 21%.

“I’m really happy and I congratulate all the winners,” Mayor Gabriel Amat told La Voz de Almería newspaper.

“It’s very important for the town, especially in the difficult times we’ve been facing.”

Spain established its national lottery as a charity in 1763, during the reign of King Carlos III, but its objective gradually shifted toward filling state coffers.

El Gordo itself dates from 1812.

Other lotteries have larger individual top prizes, but El Gordo is ranked as the world’s richest, handing out a total of €2.2 billion this year alone in millions of prizes.

The standard décimo ticket costs €20. People traditionally chip in together and buy shares of several or many tickets among friends, families or workmates in one of the most popular Christmas customs in Spain. Queues form outside lottery stores weeks ahead of the draw.

The prize ticket numbers are sung out by pupils of Madrid’s Saint Ildefonso School in a nationally televised event from the city’s Teatro Real opera house.

Organisers said ticket sales totaled €2.5 billion this year, up 4.5% from last year.