Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - El Gordo: The World's Biggest Lottery

Episode Date: March 15, 2021

Every so often, you see lottery jackpots that grow to enormous levels. Lotteries such as Powerball and Mega Millions have on occasion grown to have prizes over $1 billion dollars. However, they all pale in comparison to the annual lottery which takes place in Spain every year. The total amount of money given away in this lottery is over double the cash prize given out in the biggest American lottery. Learn more about El Gordo, the Spanish Christmas Lottery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every so often you see lottery jackpots that grow to enormous levels. Lotteries such as the Powerball and Mega Millions have on occasion grown to have prizes over $1 billion. However, they all pale in comparison to the annual lottery which takes place every year in Spain. The total amount given away in this lottery is over double the cash prize given out in the biggest American lotteries. Learn more about El Gordo, the Spanish Christmas Lottery, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by the Tourist Office of Spain. It's spring now, and that means Easter, and there's probably no country in the world with as many unique Easter celebrations as Spain.

You'll find religious processions in many cities, with mourners dressed in black, religious brotherhoods, floats, and, of course, fantastic food. And as you would expect, each region and city will have its own unique customs and traditions. And even if you can't make it this year, don't worry. These celebrations have been going on for centuries, and they'll probably be going on for centuries in the future. You can start researching your dream trip to Spain today by visiting spain.com, where you can get everything you need to know to plan your Spanish experience.

Once again, that's Spain.info. Lotteries have a surprisingly long history. There's evidence of lotteries being run in the 3rd century BC during the Han dynasty in China. They were believed to have partially funded the Great Wall of China. And Brewer Augustus created a lottery to help raise funds. for repairs to the buildings and infrastructure in Rome. During the early Renaissance, lotteries were popular in both Italy and the Netherlands as a source of revenue.

One of the things that really brings in money is when lotteries have huge jackpots. In the United States, there are multi-state lotteries that roll over their main prize when there's no winner. If you have enough weeks in a row without a winner, the jackpots can become enormous. On three occasions since 2016, there have been Powerball or Mega Millions jackpots that have gone over $1 billion. However, these prizes are actually annuities that are distributed over 20 years. If you take the cash up front, which almost everyone does, you will get closer to 60% of the value which is described. When you factor in this discount, there has never been a U.S. lottery that has actually given out over $1 billion in cash. However, none of these massive jackpots can hold a torch

to the Sorretto Extraordinaire de Navidad or the Spanish Christmas Lottery. However, many people know it better as El Gordo, or the fat one. El Gordo is quite simply the biggest lottery in the world in terms of total prize money. In 2020, the total prize money given away was $2.38 billion, euros, or $2.897 billion. Also, unlike American lotteries, the prizes which are promoted are not annuities. It's all cold, hard cash. El Gordo is not run like American lotteries. For example, there are 292 million possible numbers you can pick for the Powerball lottery.

The Mega Millions lottery has 302 million possible numbers. El Gordo only has 100,000 numbers. Now, you might be doing some quick math in your head. If the prize is almost $3 billion and there are only 100,000 numbers, wouldn't it be really easy to just buy up all the numbers and win the prize? Well, no. It would be a pretty bad lottery if they couldn't have figured out basic arithmetic. The rules of El Gordo are very different from lottery rules you might be used to in the United States. For starters, each ticket costs 200 euro.

There are 170 tickets available for each of the 100,000 numbers. If you do the math, 100,000 numbers times 170 tickets per number times 200 euros per ticket equals 3.5.5.5. $20.4 billion euros. Do they really have 17 million people sending in 200 euros per ticket? No. And this is where the rules of the lottery get interesting. Each 200 euro ticket is called a billete. Most of them are not purchased by individuals. They're purchased by bars, kiosks, and other places who sell lottery tickets. Each biette is actually a perforated sheet consisting of 10 tickets. Those tickets are called a decimo, and they cost 20 euros each. Each decimo has the same exact number as the biette. Each decimo gets 10% of what every biette wins. The decimo can be

further subdivided. There are charities and street sellers which sell smaller, cheaper units of the tickets. All of these cheaper tickets called participations are all attached to the same number as the original ticket that it came from. So how does this all work in practice? Let's say you run a bar in a small town. You might purchase 10 bietes, all of which are the exact same number. Those are then subdivided and sold to your customers and other people in town. Everyone in community, in effect, is playing the exact same number. If the number comes up, then everyone wins and splits the prize.

This is what makes El Gordo so popular. It isn't one person winning a ginormous amount of money. It's everyone around you winning a fairly large amount of money. In fact, the motto of the lottery is, the greatest prize is sharing. One of the reasons people buy tickets is that they don't want to be the only one in their social group not to have purchased a ticket. In 2012, a Greek filmmaker named Costas Mitsotikis was living in a small Spanish town of Sodado. Everyone in Sodado purchased a ticket, except for Costas. And they won.

Everyone in the town, except for Costas, got about $100,000. euro. Each winning number for the El Gordo Grand Prize will get about $4 million per ticket. And remember, there are up to 170 tickets given out for each number. The drawing is held on December 22nd each year in the Teatro Real in Madrid. There are two giant ball hoppers that are on stage. One has all 100,000 of the numbers. The other smaller hopper has 1,807 balls, which correspond to all the prizes. All the balls are made of wood and are individually laser cut. They also have a hole in the center. When they're pulled out, they're then placed on a wire with the other balls. The balls are all taken out of the hopper by children from a nearby elementary school, San Ildefanzo. There are two

children who each take a ball from each hopper at the same time. They then sing the numbers which are written on each ball. The balls are shown to a committee of observers on the stage and to a camera so the public can see it themselves. The children from the school, are used because of tradition. It used to be an orphanage, and the lottery used to use them because it was felt that orphans would be trustworthy. The process will go on for hours as all 1,807 prizes, and the numbers are selected. There is one grand prize, El Gordo, one second prize, one third prize, two fourth prizes, and 17 fifth prizes. The remaining 1,794 balls are all very small prizes. If you want, the entire 2018 draw is on YouTube. It's a five-hour video covering the

entire process from putting the balls in the hopper to the selection of the final prize. The El Gordo ball is drawn around the three-hour and 47-minute mark. One thing I should also mention is that the Spanish Christmas lottery is also the second oldest lottery in the world. It began in 1812 in Cadiz, and has been held every year even through the Spanish Civil War. And now you're probably wondering if this is the second oldest lottery, what is the oldest? Well, that is also in Spain. The La Primitiva lottery was first held on December 10, 1763. I've been to Spain many times. On every trip, I've seen people selling lottery tickets on the street. However, I never really bothered to look into it. The next time you're there, and for certainly the next time I'm there,

and you see someone on a sidewalk with a wooden briefcase with tickets, or if you're at a local bar, ask if they have El Gordo tickets. If so, for just a few Euro, you can participate in one of Spain's oldest and biggest traditions. The associate producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Thor Thompson. If you'd like to support the show,

please donate over at patreon.com. There is content only available to supporters, merchandise, and even opportunities for a show producer credit. If you know someone you think would enjoy the show, please share it with them. Also remember, if you leave a five-star review, I'll read a review on the show.