Follow Spain Investment Immigration and Life in Spain: On December 22, 2013, the annual "El Gordo" lottery (also known as the "Spanish Christmas Lottery") in Spain, with a total prize pool of up to 3.4 billion euros (approximately 28.2 billion RMB), held its draw ceremony at the Teatro Real in the capital, Madrid. Starting at 9:00 AM, the entire drawing process lasted 4-5 hours. Due to limited seating in the theater, many Madrid residents queued outside the entrance from the night before. They decorated their clothes and hats with lottery tickets to pray for good luck.
Major Spanish television and radio stations broadcast the draw live every year, and Spaniards who cannot attend in person wait in front of their televisions early in the morning. According to statistics, nearly 46 million Spaniards watched this lottery extravaganza this year. During the ceremony, each winning number is "sung" in turn by schoolchildren from Madrid. This year's top prize remained 400,000 euros (approximately 3.32 million RMB), and the second prize was 120,000 euros (approximately 990,000 RMB). The tickets were widely available, with sales in regions including Madrid, Barcelona, and Seville. The Spanish "El Gordo" lottery is arguably the world's largest annual lottery event, held only once a year.
Countless Spaniards won prizes on the 22nd, but one 27-year-old man was incredibly lucky! Raul Clavero from Madrid luckily won the top prize of 400,000 euros (approximately 3.32 million RMB). He excitedly shared: "I discovered I had won while watching TV, and I immediately jumped out of bed and ran out. I can finally enjoy this Christmas to the fullest, and of course, the first thing I will do is pay off my loans." Even more fortunately, all five members of his family had purchased the same number, which meant the other four also won the 400,000-euro grand prize—truly incredibly lucky!
In Spain, three-quarters of the population purchase year-end lottery tickets every year. However, this year, in order to increase government revenue and meet the "deficit reduction target" set by the European Union, the Spanish Ministry of Finance began levying a 20% personal income tax on prize amounts exceeding 2,500 euros (approximately 20,000 RMB). This was the first time in the history of the Spanish lottery, and this measure led to a slight decrease in the number of people buying lottery tickets compared to previous years.
