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El Gordo Primitiva

The el Gordo Primitiva Spanish Lottery

The El Gordo Primitiva (Spanish for “the big one”) is arguably the world’s most famous lottery. It combines two of the most important features that everyone hopes for in a lottery - lots of prizes and the brightest of chances.

Playing the El Gordo Primitiva has become a Spanish tradition. Every Christmas, people buy lottery tickets hoping that the season’s air will blow a little luck their way. In fact, in Spain, you can safely say that the El Gordo Primitiva has become a national obsession, with approximately 98% of the Spanish population participating in this lottery.

Interesting Facts About The El Gordo Primitiva

Old yet immensely popular - Whilst keno, a Chinese lottery is one of the oldest recorded lotteries in human history, the El Gordo is the oldest running lottery game in the world. It has been running since 1763 when it was first established. It has long since become an accepted tradition. Millions of people struggle to buy tickets during the Christmas season. The joys of watching the El Gordo Primitiva draws have become an accepted Spanish tradition.

Superstitions & The El Gordo Primitiva - There are many superstitions that people believe in when selecting the winning numbers of the El Gordo Primitiva. In the aftermath of the event, the numbers marking the September 11, 2000 attack was the most sought after tickets. The reason behind this was the belief that good luck always follows bad luck. It didn’t work that year. But it did work when folks in Purtollano a town in Central Spain, bought plenty of tickets, the year when nine workers had been killed at an oil refinery in an August blast. Good luck and cheer was with them, and many people were rewarded with wins.

In 2003 luck also finally did come through. Among the many winners of the El Gordo Primitiva announced that year, there were many people from a town whose literal translation means “Luck”. 60 winning tickets worth €2 million each were purchased by inhabitants of the village of Sort (which means “luck” in the region’s language).

In 2004, the number 220504—which represents the date, the heir to the Spanish crown was due to marry his bride, was found to be one of the most sought out numbers.

Get Lucky With The El Gordo Primitiva

However it is generally agreed that the El Gordo Primitiva helps luck along sometimes. The winning ticket announced during the draw is won with 194 others. Because of the limited number of El Gordo Primitiva ticket numbers available (the lottery only sells tickets between the numbers of 00000 and 99999), each ticket number can be resold 195 times. What this means is that for each ticket there are at least 195 associated winners.

Most people compete in the El Gordo Primitiva just for the experience of it. Like a participant once explained, “El Gordo isn't like any other lottery, it's a Christmas institution.”

Rightly said! There really isn’t any other lottery like the El Gordo Primitiva