Christmas lottery
The Christmas lottery ( Spanish Sorteo de Navidad ) is a form of the state lottery played in Spain since 1812 , which takes place every year on the morning of December 22nd. The name Sorteo de Navidad first appeared in 1892. It is a special drawing (officially: Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad ) of the Lotería Nacional, which is played twice a week by the state company Loterías y Apuestas del Estado .
The Spanish Christmas lottery is considered to be the largest lottery in the world in terms of the total amount paid out. For example, prizes totaling 2.38 billion euros were planned for the Christmas lottery to be played in 2019 , which corresponds to 70% of the stakes (compare the payout in the German lottery : 50%). The main prize, El Gordo (“The Fat One”) won a total of 680 million euros. Of the remaining 30%, 3.7% is paid as commission to the sales outlets and around 22% goes to the state as profit. The rest are expenses.
Lottery system
The Christmas lottery, like the regular draws of the Lotería Nacional, is based on tickets with 5-digit numbers.
Since 2011 there have been 100,000 ticket numbers (00000 to 99999), previously there were fewer (e.g. from 2005 to 2010 only 85,000).
A whole lot (billete) is printed on a sheet of paper about the size of DIN A4, which is divided into ten tenths of a lot (décimos) by perforations . All décimos of a billete have the same ticket number. A décimo costs consistently 20 euros, a whole lot so 200 euros since the introduction of the euro.
Due to the great popularity of the lottery, the numbers are issued in several so-called "series" of tickets. 2019 z. B. There are 170 series of each billete , so that 170 billetes and thus 1,700 décimos have the same lot number. The tickets for the usual weekly lottery tickets of the Lotería Nacional are only available in six series and also cost less.
The exact number of ticket numbers and series as well as their price and the exact distribution of prizes are determined anew every year.
A whole lot (billete) is therefore quite expensive; The usual sales unit is the tenths of a ticket.
Tickets can only be purchased at Loterías y Apuestas del Estado outlets , of which there are over 10,500 nationwide. Since there are only 170 billetes of each ticket number , not every ticket number is available at every point of sale. So if you value a certain ticket number, you have to find a point of sale where it is offered (which can be done on the lottery company's website). The billetes are not all delivered directly to the sales outlets, but gradually as required. Since 2010 it has also been possible to purchase tickets or décimos at electronic terminals in the sales outlets of Loterías y Apuestas del Estado . It is then also possible to choose a specific ticket number (as long as not all billetes with this number have been delivered for sale via the traditional distribution channel).
The lots are available from around mid-July each year.
The following prizes will be drawn on December 22nd (as of 2019; the prize money relates to a whole ticket , so with a décimo you only win a tenth of this amount):
- 1 First prize over 4,000,000 euros, called El Gordo.
- 1 Second prize of 1,250,000 euros.
- 1 Third prize over 500,000 euros.
- 2 Fourth prize over 200,000 euros.
- 8 Fifth prizes over 60,000 euros.
- 1,794 prizes over 1,000 euros each, called Pedrea (“hail or falling rocks ”), because these prizes only hail during the drawing.
All 170 billetes of the drawn ticket numbers win . The total winnings z. B. the Gordo makes 680 million euros. In addition to the numbers drawn, other undrawn ticket numbers also win, namely (as of 2019):
- 2 prizes over 20,000 euros for the ticket numbers directly before and after the first prize (aproximación).
- 2 prizes over 12,500 euros for the ticket numbers directly before and after the second prize (aproximación).
- 2 prizes over 9,600 euros for the ticket numbers directly before and after the third prize (aproximación).
- 297 Prizes over 1,000 euros for ticket numbers whose first 3 digits match the first 3 digits of the first, second or third prize (centena).
- 198 Prizes over 1,000 euros for ticket numbers whose first 3 digits match the first 3 digits of one of the two fourth prizes (centena).
- 2,997 prizes over 1,000 euros for ticket numbers whose last two digits match the last two digits of the first, second or third prize.
- 9,999 stake repayment (pure gross) of 200 euros for the ticket numbers whose last digit corresponds to the last digit of the first prize.
All prices per lot are fixed. So if an "unpopular" number is drawn from which fewer tickets have been sold, the lottery company has to pay out fewer winnings overall. Conversely, more winnings are paid out if a frequently sold number is drawn.
The drawing
The first drawing took place on December 18, 1812, because of the Spanish War of Independence in Cadiz . The process has remained largely unchanged since then. Today the drawing takes place every year on the morning of December 22nd in Madrid.
Like all Lotería Nacional draws, the drawing is public. It has also been broadcast live on television since 1967. The television broadcast has audience ratings of around 50%. In the public consciousness, the drawing is considered to be the event that heralds the Christmas season, which in Spain lasts until Epiphany (actually the traditional day of giving presents). Another special drawing (Sorteo Extraordinario de El Niño) will be played on Epiphany .
In a large drum there are as many wooden balls (3 grams in weight, 18.8 mm in diameter, made of boxwood and laser-inscribed so that there are no differences in weight due to more or less ink) as there are lot numbers (100,000 in 2019) and each with one Lot number are labeled. There are just as many wooden balls in a smaller drum as there are prizes and these are labeled with the respective winnings (i.e. in 2019: 1,794 balls with 1,000 euros, eight with 60,000 euros, two with 200,000 euros and one each with 500,000, 1.25 million euros. and 4 million euros).
At the same time, a ball falls from each of the two drums into a glass bowl. These are taken out of the bowls by two students from Madrid's Colegio San Ildefonso - a former orphanage for boys that has meanwhile become a school for boys and girls from mostly difficult family backgrounds - and one of the children sings the ticket number and the other sings the number allocated to them Prize amount, in most cases "mil euros" (1,000 euros).
This procedure is repeated until all prices have been drawn (i.e. 1,807 times in 2019). After every 20 winnings drawn, both drums are rotated so that the balls mix again.
The drawing lasts around 3.5 hours in total and is exciting because one of the main prizes can theoretically drop out of the winning drum at any time, either with the first or with the last ball.
A good 45 minutes after the drawing has ended and after repeated checks, the winning numbers will be officially published. The lots are transferable and must be presented for redemption no later than three months after the drawing.
importance
The Christmas lottery is one of the world's largest and most famous lotteries.
In Spain it is deeply rooted in the public consciousness. In 2018, lots worth around 2.8 billion euros were sold (around 82% of all lots that would have been available). Thus, on average, each inhabitant owned about 3 décimos . The Christmas lottery accounts for around a quarter of the annual sales of Loterías y Apuestas del Estado .
“Syndicates” are also popular: many clubs buy a certain number of tickets and sell parts of them (which can be smaller than a tenth of a ticket) to their members with a small surcharge that goes to the club's treasury. In many pubs, too, such shares can be acquired from tickets bought by the landlord. This phenomenon is not only found in the Christmas lottery , but also in the regular draws of the Lotería Nacional or other lotteries.
Another topic of conversation is the commercial for the Christmas lottery, which is broadcast every year from the beginning of November. In 2013 this was a music video produced by the well-known director Pablo Berger , shot against the picturesque backdrop of the town of Pedraza , in which Montserrat Caballé , Raphael , David Bustamante , Marta Sánchez and Niña Pastori sing to the melody of Always on My Mind . The somewhat pathetic design made the spot an internet phenomenon : shortly after its publication, several satirical revisions were circulating on the internet .
Probability of winning
According to Miguel Córdoba Bueno, lecturer in applied mathematics at the University of CEU San Pablo, the odds of winning in 2008 were as follows:
- Lose 84.32% of the tickets.
- The stake is refunded for 10% of the tickets.
- Win 5.68%, although of course it is not said which price. (With the German lottery it is 1.9%)
The probability for the "Gordo" is 1 in 100,000.
69.7% of all income is distributed.
El Gordo
The highlight of the day is when the Gordo falls out of the winning drum (2013: 4 million euros for each of the 170 billetes with the number drawn). Since the sales outlets usually sell a large number of tenths of the same number, entire villages or company workforces often post a six-figure profit per capita. According to TV reports, this sometimes leads to a sharp rise in local property prices. In 2017, around 2.4 billion euros were distributed, including 520 million euros in the Galician city of Vilalba .
In non-Spanish-speaking countries, the term El Gordo is sometimes held specifically for the Christmas lottery and sometimes even assumed that it is the name of the Christmas lottery as a whole. El Gordo, on the other hand, stands for “the main prize”, which other lotteries also have. In addition, the weekly lottery called El Gordo de la Primitiva , which should not be confused with the Christmas lottery, has been taking place in Spain for some time .
Innovations in 2011 and 2013
In 2011, the number of ticket numbers was increased from 85,000 to 100,000 (which reduced the probability of winning). In return, however, the winnings were also increased (the gordo for a tenth ticket is now 400,000 euros instead of 300,000 euros previously).
Until 2013 , no taxes were levied on winnings made in lotteries organized by Loterías y Apuestas del Estado . This has been different since 2013: Profits that exceed an allowance of 2,500 euros are taxed at 20%. The tax is paid directly by the lottery company when the payment is made ( withholding tax ). The main prize for a tenth of a ticket is only 320,500 euros after taxes and is therefore only 20,500 euros higher than before the increase in the winnings in 2011. Due to the withholding tax, it is actually not 70%, but 63.3–63.7 % distributed (depending on whether whole or tenth lots are considered). Spain belongs to the EU and has a double taxation agreement with Germany . A German winner can claim this profit tax back from the Spanish tax office in the following year, because lottery winnings are tax-free in Germany.
Trivia
A specialty of the Christmas lottery is the town of Sort (Autonomous Community of Catalonia ): Since Sort means "luck" in Catalan , the town attracts a large number of tourists from all over Spain, who often buy tickets there for gambling. In fact, an above-average number of winning tickets have already been sold in Sort; there were five grand prize winners over a ten-year period. The local sales point La Bruixa d'Or (Catalan: The Gold Witch ) is by far the highest-turnover in the country. Here, lots can also be ordered via the Internet, which will then be delivered by post.
Before the currency changeover to euros, the profit per ticket in the lowest prize category was 150,000 pesetas . Since this prize was drawn a total of 1,774 times, the children of the Colegio San Ildefonso had to sing “ciento cincuenta mil pesetas” just as often , but from 2002 only “mil euros” (1,000 euros). This shortened the drawing procedure by nine minutes compared to the last Peseta drawing in 2001.
References
- ^ History of the Colegio San Ildefonso
- ^ Universidad CEU San Pablo (22/12/2008). La Lotería de Navidad, una tradición con poca probabilidad que toque ( Memento of December 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Christmas lottery in Spain: 'El Gordo' makes the Spanish community happy . In: Spiegel Online , December 22, 2017 (accessed December 23, 2017).
- ↑ Pilgerfahrt ins Glück Article about the importance of Sorts in the Christmas lottery.