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That’s right, crazy time = the Spanish Christmas El Gordo lottery.

You know, the once a year draw with the prize fund of €2.5 BILLION!

This is a behind the scenes video shot during last years draw. The stage is somewhere behind all the mad melee.

If you watch closely you’ll see the school children from San Ildefonso picking up the balls drawn from the machine. It’s tradition that pairs of children from the school are involved every year.

They sing out the winning numbers whilst they deliver each of the lucky winning balls to the officials sat at their desk overseeing the madness.

This is El Gordo – Normal Rules Do Not Apply

For those who haven’t seen it before, the level of excitement is pretty odd just for a lottery draw.

Spain as a whole loves the Christmas El Gordo lottery draw. It’s part of being Spanish to play in the draw.

So it’s also part of being Spanish to spend hours watching the big draw on TV.

And it does take hours too. About 3 hours in all.

That’s because El Gordo pays out thousands of different prizes. And each prize is also drawn out of a ball machine too.

So first they draw a winning number from one machine, then the prize that ball has won from the next machine.

Can You Imagine Watching This Live On TV?

You already know your number has won, but you then have to sit and watch them draw the amount. It could be €100 or it could be €4 Million..!

Now there’s a tense few seconds in anyones life

There are actually hundreds of jackpot prizes too. Nothing massive, just lots of them – which is just the way it should be. (Who cares if 1 person wins 200 Million, I want to see 100 of you win 2 Million!)

Here’s just the top prizes for El Gordo 2011:-

• 180 x €4 Million prizes
• 180 x €1.25 Million prizes
• 180 x €500,000 prizes
• 360 x €200,000 prizes
• 1,440 x €60,000 prizes

There’s about a bajillion more prizes beyond the major ones too.

Playing El Gordo

I always give El Gordo a play. Tickets are more expensive than most lottery draws, but it’s great fun for a once a year punt.

WARNING: Buying El Gordo tickets online is a mine field!

You can buy tickets from various online ticket sellers. But what you get for your money does vary dramatically.

A standard ‘decimo’ ticket costs €20 if you buy it from a vendor in Spain. So if you can, buy them yourself or get a friend in Spain to.

Online, expect to pay double. But don’t get stung by the rip-off companies who charge a lot more than that.

Or if you want the easy option (the one I use these days) join me in one of these El Gordo syndicates. This costs a one-off £20 and gives you a share in 10 decimo tickets. So 10 times the chance of winning.

It’s good honest crazy fun.

You probably won’t see the El Gordo draw live, unless you have a satellite feed from Spain (or er, live there!) – so I’ll make sure I post up a list of all the winning numbers as soon as I have them.

Related posts:

1. Biggest Spanish Fiesta – El Gordo!
2. El Gordo Lottery Results 2009
3. El Gordo Results 2010

The lottery is a tax on the stupid…

Or my personal favourite… the lottery is a tax on the mathematically challenged.

Gosh, that’s so desperately witty.

This phrase has been abused by dull, smug people for years. Sadly, they think nobody will notice that they didn’t actually come up with the phrase.

If only there was a tax on the comically challenged.

For one, I don’t believe for a second that these witty geniuses have never played the lottery themselves. Or other games of chance.

Furthermore, nobody buys a lottery ticket as an investment. We don’t expect it to be worth millions.

Yes, we hope we will win. We dream that we will hit the jackpot.

But we all know it’s very unlikely to happen. But the fact is, it could.

And that’s what we’re buying.

Firstly, we’re buying a little dream time. What would we do with that jackpot money – what would we buy, where would we live, what car would we drive, how would we help out our family and friends.

Secondly, it’s entertainment!

I don’t think I’m alone in saying that, actually, I quite enjoy playing the lottery. Whether I play in a lottery syndicate, or I buy a quick pick ticket at my local shop. It’s fun.

Some big winners carry on buying lottery tickets. They must be really stupid then, right? Or, could it be because they just enjoy playing too..?

And for a pound, a dollar or a euro – that’s some very cheap entertainment.

I’ve spent a lot more than that renting movies that entertained me a lot less.

Some players probably don’t fully understand the odds. But does that really make them foolish?

Is it foolish to have a little fun, enjoy a little ‘what if’ dreaming with your friends or work colleagues?

For less than half the price of a cappucino?

I think not.

And what of the winners dear dull witted lottery basher?

I’d love to put one of you in a room full of lottery winners. You know, a whole bunch of those stupid mathematically challenged people. The ones who dared to dream a little, and found their little dream became a great big wonderful reality.

It’s actually quite hard to take offense when someone calls you ‘stupid’ for risking a bit of pocket change. Particularly when you’ve already become one of the tens of thousands of overnight millionaires created by lottery games.

Yes, it would have been far more sensible to put that money in the bank. And enjoy the benefits of compound interest that would see it double to cover the price of a whole cappucino in around 20 years…

And maybe we could do that with all the other money we waste on having a bit of fun and enjoying life.

Or maybe, just maybe, we could live a little instead.

There is one aspect of the maths that every lottery player clearly understands however.

The chances of winning a jackpot may be remote, but not buying a ticket makes them precisely zero.

Good luck in the next draw.

P.S. Hit the Like button below if you agree that playing the lottery is not stupid!

Related posts:

1. Anti Online Gambling Law Challenged
2. El Gordo Draw – Kinda Freaky

This week Ryanair gets hit by 50 claims to have been that angry customer. And can they have the money please.

Now I’m sure budget airline Ryanair is used to angry passengers… but normally passengers can correctly recall what they were angry about. Amusingly, only 10 of the wannabe scratchcard munchers were even passengers on the Poland to UK flight!

Unfortunately none of the remaining 10 bizarre claimants will be getting the money either. Ryanair confirmed that without being able to produce the winning ticket, the claim cannot be verified. A spokesman for Ryanair said:

Unfortunately, when the passenger ate his scratch card he chewed away his chance to pick up the €10,000 cash prize, which will now go to charity.

The moral of the tale being either a) don’t drink while flying, or b) it’s worth investing in that anger management counselling before you hit the jackpot.

Related posts:

1. Are My Chances Of Winning Better If I Play Less Often..?
2. Does Buying More Tickets Change The Odds Of Winning The Lottery?
3. Chances of Winning Mega Millions?