Lotto-crazy Spaniards await world's biggest jackpot

Biting their nails and pacing back and forth, lottery-mad Spaniards could think of little else today as the clock ticked towards the awarding of 236 billion pesetas (£840m) in the biggest payout on Earth.

The annual Christmas lottery, officially nicknamed El Gordo - the Fat One - puts the entire nation on tenterhooks, with crowds huddling by television sets in bars and living rooms, waiting to see whether their five-digit number would be the lucky one.

According to a 189-year-old tradition, the balls are plucked from a golden tumbler and the winning sums are sung out in high-pitched tones by the children at the San Idelfonso primary school in Madrid, formerly an orphanage.

However, this is the last year the pupils will utter the word ‘‘peseta’’ as next year the prizes will be awarded in euros, the new legal tender of the European Union as of January 1.

This year, this nation of 42 million people spent a total of about 360 billion pesetas (£1.2bn) on El Gordo - an average of £30 per person.

Although the jackpot is far greater than any other lottery in the world, up to 1,700 people may hold the winning number and thus claim a share of the 300 million peseta (£1m) grand prize - while more than 1,500 tax-free runners-up prizes ensure the wealth is widely distributed.

To buy an El Gordo ticket, players must wager 3,000 pesetas (£10.50) and choose a number between 00001 and 65,999.

Each number, however, can appear on up to 1,700 tickets. Neighbours, office colleagues and sports teammates often get together and bet on the same number. Last year, all tickets bearing the winning number had been sold in the town of Segovia.

Spanish lottery players routinely scoff at statistical methods and instead follow superstitions that often view luck as the flip side of tragedy.

The combination that sold out quickest this year was 11901, known as ‘‘Bin Laden’s number’’ because it represents September 11, 2001, the day of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

El Gordo also spawns a virtual tourist industry with players travelling across the country to purchase tickets at locations that previously sold lucky numbers.