Christmas Lottery in Spain

The Extraordinary Christmas Draw, known as the Christmas Lottery, is one of the most important and popular lottery draws held in Spain every December 22nd, which traditionally took place in the drawing hall of Loterías y Apuestas del Estado, in Madrid. Since 2010, due to the large number of people who come to watch the draw, it has been moved to other venues in Madrid with more capacity, such as the Palacio de Congresos or the Teatro Real. The second most important draw after this one is the Sorteo Extraordinario del Niño, which takes place every January 6.

It is part of the National Lottery draws. The top prize is called the Gordo, which since 2011 has a value of four million euros per ticket, four hundred thousand euros per tenth or twenty thousand euros per euro bet. The sales period of this draw is the longest of the year, since the administrations receive the numbers in the first weeks of July.

The first time the lottery was drawn at Christmas was on December 18, 1812 in Cadiz, and the first jackpot went to the number 03604. Then the ticket price was forty reales with a prize of four thousand pesetas. The first time it was called Sorteo de Navidad was on December 23, 1892, and it replaced the legend "Prósperos de Premios", although it was not printed on the tickets until Christmas 1897. Until the 1990s, the draw was held, as it is today, on December 22, except if it fell on a Sunday, which was brought forward to Saturday, December 21, 1991 being the last year in which this situation occurred. Nowadays, the extraordinary draw, which is held every year on December 22nd, and which is put on sale during the first fortnight of July, is the most important and popular of all the lottery draws held in Spain, since it represents 30% of the annual turnover of the Loterías y Apuestas del Estado organization.