Spain's Holiday Lottery Fatter Than Ever By Associated Press
document.write(getElapsed("20051218T171244Z")); Sun Dec 18, 12:12 AMUPDATED 1 DAY 31 MINUTES AGO
MADRID, Spain - The Spanish Christmas lottery known as "El Gordo" _ the Fat One _ is even chubbier this year, with total prize money of $2.4 billion.
An estimated three of every four Spaniards will be holding tickets for the complex sweepstakes. The lottery will be held Dec. 22 in a three-hour televised ceremony that brings Spain to a standstill.
This year's version of an event that goes back to 1812 sweetens winnings for first-prize tickets by 50 percent, Jesus Evangelio, director of the government agency overseeing Spain's many lotteries, told the news agency Efe in an interview published Sunday.
That means people holding $24 tickets bearing the first-prize number will receive $360,000, up from $240,000 last year, he said.
The total prize money is up from $2.1 billion last year.
Although other lotteries have bigger individual top prizes, Spain's is billed as the world's richest lottery for the total sum of prize money dished out.
The lottery shuns jackpots in favor of a share-the-wealth system in which thousands of numbers yield at least some degree of Christmas mirth _ ranging from the face value of a $24 ticket to more lucrative but lower-level winnings and all the way up to the first-prize number.
The idea is for the money to trickle through Spanish society, where office workers, families, sports clubs and other groups often pitch in to buy tickets together.
This has nothing to do with this lottery but If I ever decided to move abroad to live, it would be Spain, I love the country, such a nice place to be. I would move there in a flash.
