Christmas holidays in Spain are not only the long-awaited vacation, festive dinner with family, gifts under the tree, and touching hymns in cathedrals. Among the centuries-old Christmas traditions of the Spanish there is another one – participation in the annual Loteria de Navidad lottery, which is unanimously recognized as the largest and oldest on the planet.
At the end of December, almost the entire population of Spain lines up to purchase a cherished ticket for the draw of an unimaginable prize fund that reaches 2.24 billion euros. The situation is further complicated by the fact that the number of colorful sheets of paper with five-digit codes from 00000 to 99999 over images of medieval masters is limited, and along with buying Christmas gifts, almost everyone considers it their duty to buy a ticket for the draw before December 22.
Each ticket consists of 10 shares ("décimos") with the same code and is issued in 160 copies. Since the range of combinations is limited, the number of tickets amounts to 100,000 series. Those wishing to participate in the draw can purchase a whole ticket and thus increase the chance of winning by 10 times, or an individual share from each ticket and try their luck in different combinations.
The total number of shares is 160 million. In addition to the multi-billion prize fund, Loteria de Navidad pleases with unprecedented chances of winning, according to which one or another prize, of which there are many, goes to 1 in 7 players. Additionally, 1 in 100,000 participants gets an amazing opportunity to hit the jackpot of 4 million euros in a full ticket! For comparison, on average, such a probability in other lotteries is about 1 in 50,000,000.
In addition to mind-boggling prizes, Loteria de Navidad is famous for its thrilling, hours-long draws that glue all of Spain to TV screens and spark interest among lottery enthusiasts far beyond the country. Unlike most lotteries, where balls are selected from lottery machines and then the number shown is called, the winning combinations of Loteria de Navidad are drawn and then sung by Spanish schoolchildren.
For this, every year the children's choir of the Madrid school San Ildefonso is invited, whose participants take balls from giant gilded spherical cages, after which they sing the numbers before a special commission. Thus, winners are determined, on average, in 13 main and 1,774 secondary prize categories.
The Loteria de Navidad – 2013 draw will take place in just a few weeks, and this year participants can win more than 15,000 different prizes.
_