If you want to participate in the richest lotto anywhere in the world, these dates should be etched into your memory with gold foil: December the 22nd (El Gordo de Navidad "The Fat One"), January the 6th (Sorteo del Niño), and 5th July "The Summer Fat One". This is the only lottery which offers over €1 billion (around £600 million) in prizes.
The draw is made with two bowls or "bombos", and is usually
accompanied by singing orphan children and a lot of over-the-top
shiny stuff - from dropping paper to the dresses worn by the glamorous
assistants. The draw can take about five hours from start to finish,
but the whole country watches every single second.
One of the aforementioned bowls contains the 66,000 possible numbers
of the draw, and in the other are a set of balls with the prizes.
Balls are extracted from both bowls simultaneously until all of
the prizes have been won. Tickets have roughly a 1:6 chance of winning
any prize with around 2,000 of the 66,000 winning at least face
value of the ticket.
The sums involved are large and it is not uncommon for an entire
villages, factories and extended families to gang together to buy
sets of tickets and then share the proceeds amongst all of the members.
Play the El Gordo Lotto online here