It was 16 minutes past one in the afternoon, Spanish time, when El Gordo played in the royal theater. 88,008 was the lucky number that distributed four million euros per tenth throughout Spain. The issue was sold in Madrid, Barcelona, Granada, Seville, the Balearic Islands, Jaén and other locations in the country.
This year, El Gordo came to the rescue and was in fact the last in the history of the Spanish Lottery, surpassing that of 2014, when it started at 1 p.m. Inside the Teatro Real, anxiety took over the audience, who were already desperate for the first prize.
This year’s drawing was full of excitement, as the most generous prizes had to wait and were awarded almost in order of importance. The audience did not move and when the winner finally emerged, the room erupted in applause of joy and relief.
The voices of the students of the Colegio de San Ildefonso, Yesica Paola Valencia Gómez and Francisco Moreno Durán, dictated the destiny of many who began Christmas in the best way.
Part of the jackpot went to Três Mil Villas and Parque Amate, in Seville, two of the poorest neighborhoods in Spain and where these millions were undoubtedly most needed.
Another curiosity of the draw was the third prize, with the number 31938 and 50 thousand euros for each tenth, entirely in the town of Biar, in Alicante.
El Gordo is one of the most deeply rooted traditions in Spain and, like every December 22, the Christmas Lottery marks the official start of the Christmas season. Some now celebrate the early gift of the shoe. The rest have a whole year to dream about El Gordo again.
Source: TSF
