El Gordo Lottery 2015 Hands Out 2.2 Billion Euros; Beach City Celebrated Win!
The 2015 El Gordo lottery was set to pay out more than two billion euros in prizes and most of Tuesday night's winners came from a southern beach city in Spain, according to CNN Money.
Tickets with the top prize number in the Christmas lottery were sold in Roquetas de Mar and the winning number 79140 was on 1,600 tickets also known as "decimos" (tenths). Each ticket holder won $400,000 euros ($434,800).
El Gordo, which means Fat One in Spanish, is one of the biggest lotteries in the world and even if it is operated out of Spain, anyone who wants to join can participate and purchase tickets. These are available online.
Tickets sell for 200 euros ($218) each. Usually, groups would buy tickets together and split the prize if they won and sometimes, companies would give employees tickets or a whole village would buy into El Gordo lottery as part of their Christmas celebrations.
Spain in recent years, has struggled through the European debt crisis and a real estate bubble. The 2015 El Gordo lottery event on Dec. 22, united the country with millions watching the hours-long television program just to find out if they won, revealed ABC News.
El Gordo's tickets are sold in many lottery sites around the country, but top tickets this year, were sold by only one lottery agent. Officials say this is possible since bettors do not get to pick their own numbers.
Roquetas de Mar's mayor said the win is great news for the city because the province of Almeria has a 31 percent unemployment rate, much higher than Spain's 21 percent jobless rate.
"I'm really happy and I congratulate all the winners," told Mayor Gabriel Amat to the Voz de Almeria newspaper. "It's very important for the town, especially in the difficult times we've been facing."
Students from Madrid's Saint Ildefonso School sung out the prize ticket numbers in the 2015 El Gordo Lottery; which was televised nationwide from the city's opera house, Teatro Real, reported U.S. News.
The annual Christmas lottery dates back to 1812.
