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Tickets are now on sale for 'El Gordo' 2011.
The most famous lottery in the world will be drawn in Madrid on December 22nd, with this years's proze fund expected to ve the biggest ever at some €2.5 billion as Spaniards hope that their luck can change in the face of a worsening economic climate.
"El Gordo", literally 'the fat one' has been drawn for almost 200 years and it is arguably the world's most famous lottery game, with an estimated 98% of all Spaniards taking part in some way. Lottery kiosks in major Spanish cities are often swamped as people fight to buy their tickets, which is why sales now begin weeks before the draw.
The winning numbers are drwan in a lengthy and complex ceremony, which involves the numbers being 'sung' out load as they are drawn by the pupils of the San Ildefonso primary school in Madrid.
Due to it's unique structure, the draw allows players to win up to 7 times on a single ticket. Unlike other lotteries where players choose their own numbers, in El Gordo, players purchase a ticket with a pre-printed number on it from 00000 to 99999. There are 180 series of each number, and once they're sold out, there are no more chances to participate.
A whole ticket, or ‘billete' costs €200, but these are split into ‘décimos', or tenths to make it much easier for participants to afford to take part. The cost of one decimo is therefore one tenth of a billete, and similarly, the prize fund is one-tenth of what the whole ticket would win. Billetes are sold in series of numbers with a set number of prizes for each series. The number of series can vary from year to year. For example 2009 contained 195 such series, therefore the draw for 2009 comprised a staggering 195 €3 million Jackpots together with 195 second prizes of €1 million , 195 third prizes of €500'000 prizes of €1,000, 390 fourth prizes of €200,000 and 1'560 prizes of €50'000 – per billet.
The jackpot prize fund alone this year is expected to be as much as €720 Million.