Thanks to a news reporter in Spain for this story on EL Gordo. The fat one (lottery)…with the most prizes won anywhere in the world in ONE draw. It happens Dec. 22.

Millions of people in Spain, among them thousands of Latin American immigrants, are breathlessly waiting the last few days until the National Lottery drawing is held to distribute more than 2.3 billion euros (some $3.3 billion) in prizes.

The “special Christmas drawing” of the Spanish lottery, the most popular such contest in the world and one of the largest in terms of prize money handed out, will be performed on Tuesday and each year there is a similar ritual: the children of the San Ildefonso school “sing” the prizes starting with the numbers that emerge from several huge drums, while the country follows the drawing on radio and television.

Finally, after about four hours, in many spots around the country, television cameras and radio microphones catch the joy of the winners, many of whom have just become millionaires, who open bottles of sparkling wine while they tell reporters what they plan to do with their newfound wealth.

For some years now, after the arrival of thousands of immigrants in Spain, the result of the lottery has been awaited with great excitement much more beyond the country’s borders, like in Latin America, which has contributed a significant part of the foreigners living in Spain.

This year, according to data from the state-run National Lottery and Wagering Entity, the total amount taken in by the Christmas lottery was more than 3.3 billion euros ($4.7 billion), out of which 2.3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) is to be distributed as prizes.

A total of 195 series of 85,000 tickets each were sold, with each ticket priced at 200 euros ($286), but each ticket is divided into tenths, or 20-euro shares.

The “fat” prize, the most highly sought after, will split up 3 million euros ($4.29 million) among people with the winning number on their tickets, and there will also be another prize of 1 million euros ($1.43 million), another of 500,000 euros ($715,000), two of 200,000 euros ($286,000) and eight of 50,000 euros ($71,500) within each series.

After that, there are thousands of other prizes for people who received numbers “close” to the winning number and the other important prize numbers, for other combinations of numbers and positions of tickets in the series in relation to the winning tickets, and on and on. The bottom line is that there are many ways to win something.

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