October 11, 2009
The Smart Guide to the Spanish El Gordo Lottery
The Elgordo Loteria is part of the Euromillions Euro lottery, but if you don’t know anymore than that you should really get to learn more. This lottery is well-known for payouts that are among the world’s richest - payouts ranging from 84 million to more than two and a half billion Euros. Even that isn’t the only thing that’s special here. The el gordo primitiva offers up more than thirteen thousand prizes, which makes for a one in six chance to win a prize. These are actually remarkable odds when compared with the majority of other competing lotteries.
There is one draw per month under the auspices of the Euromillions Euro lotto. But three months each year are scheduled for special lotteries for yet bigger prizes. The most substantial of all the drawings is the Christmas lottery “Elgordo” (being Spanish for the “Fat Cat”), while the two other bigger lotteries are in January (”El Nio”) and in summer (”San Ildefonso”).
Unlike other lottery systems, the Elgordo Lottery employs balls with five digits printed on each one ranging from 00,000 to 84,999. One ball will be drawn from each of two bowls; the first selection indicates the winning ticket, while the second determines what the ticket is worth.
Should you want to get in on the action there is an entire ticket called a “serie”. You can also choose a more affordable option called a “décimo”, worth one-tenth of a full ticket. Neither choice is especially cheap, however, and of course neither has better odds of being a winner. As a consequence the Euromillions Euro Lotto has additionally provided an e-lottery system.
Everyone’s certain to win a prize if participating in the e-lottery system. You simply buy your way into the Elgordo Lotto syndicate which will then sort you into teams. Each team is assigned a number from zero to nine, the last digit of the winning number in the draw identifying the team which wins the money. An even division of the prize among the members follows. Everyone subscribes again for the next month’s draw and the cycle begins again.
Sharing the pots causes a little concern to some people. What you have to remember is that when the initial amount is over two and a half billion Euros, a share is still a significant sum of money. You’ll find the syndicate system is far more cost effective, and knowing that you’ll share in a prize in each draw, there are no worries about losing all the time. The syndicate promises the best return.