Winners Galore in Historic El Gordo de Navidad Draw

History was made in the El Gordo de Navidad draw held on December 22. The traditional Spanish lottery was won by the number 86148. Lottery officials say that’s the highest ever winning number.

Over €4 billion in prizes was given out in the El Gordo de Navidad draw.The unique draw was held at the Teatro Real. Schoolchildren chose and then sang the winning numbers. Those following the draw were in fancy dress with everything from Santa’s elves to the Pope for costumes.

Madrid Success

The top prize in the El Gordo de Navidad was €4 million with each player holding a tenth winning €400,000. Many of the winning tenths were sold in Madrid. That doesn’t mean all the winning players came from that city.

129 winning El Gordo de Navidad series were sold at the busy Atoche AVA station, so could have been purchased by travellers from around the country.Javier MoñinoPaniagua only recently took over a lottery kiosk at the station. He said that he sold tickets that won €520 million but none of those that he purchased won the top El Gordo de Navidad prize.

He was delighted for those who had been lucky. “You never expect it,” he said. “You always think you might sell it, then it happens.” Celebrations took place at the station as he sprayed champagne outside his kiosk.

Other top prize-winningEl Gordo de Navidad series were sold in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santona, Ayamonte and Calle Toledo of Madrid.

More big winners

The second prize was €1.25 million and was good news for a handball club in Basauri (Bizaia). They held 120 winning tickets, with one of the winners being Jose Manuel Fernandez. He didn’t see the traditional El Gordo de Navidad draw live. Mr Fernandez was in the mountains with his dogs. His wife was rather pleased with their win. “My wife didn’t believe it; she began to scream … We’re not used to winning.”

Those not successful will hope for better luck in the January 6 El Nino draw. That has a €700 million prize fund and tickets can be purchased on this site.

Here you can find all the results for the Spanish Christmas Lottery >