The Fat One

Source: Wikipedia (Barcex) 

Here are some lottery related stories:

2007:

Spanish Christmas Gordo Lottery brings happiness to some

Luck finally came into the life of José Gadin, a painter who had to retire because he was left injured after falling in an accident at work. He purchased a ticket with the number of date the accident happened – the 6,381. Diego Muñoz from Motril purchased his winning ticket on the very morning of the draw and is now 100,000 richer at a time when his assets had just been embargoed following a failed business venture.

Lady luck can also be cruel. A priest in San Lorenzo de Zamora, Jesús Campos, told the local residents that he had dreamed the number 6,380 would win and therefore he purchased 30 series of that number. He sold participations for 2€ 50 across the village, but Sunday’s draw showed he was one number away, although in the Gordo that does give a small consolation prize.

Source: typicallyspanish.com 

2006:

Actor out of luck in Spain lottery

For years, British actor Clive Arrindell has been the face, or at least, the shiny bald pate, of Spanish good luck.

Every year since 1998, he has shaved his head and travelled to Spain to shoot adverts for the country's huge Christmas lottery, El Gordo.

Throughout November and December his image as a mysterious fairy godfather, showering good luck on those who win a share of El Gordo's prize money, has played incessantly on Spanish television. This year, however, Arrindell has been dropped. A new advertising campaign has been commissioned, and he is not in it.

The problem, executives at the state lottery fund said, was that El Calvo - the Bald One - as Arrindell is known had become too popular.

"El Calvo had cannibalised the advertising campaigns, making people forget what they were about," said a state lottery spokesman.

The adverts made Arrindell immensely popular across Spain. Just a touch of his shiny skull is meant to bring good luck. They also reportedly brought him a salary of some £80,000 a year.

"He represents the spirit of the Christmas lottery - a charismatic, magical being wrapped in mystery" is how lottery bosses described him just a couple of years ago, when he was helping to boost ticket sales by up to 11% a year.

As a fixture of the Spanish Christmas, the El Gordo lottery campaign has made Arrindell almost as well-known as another import from the English-speaking world, Father Christmas.

The lottery draw for El Gordo is on December 22 and will be watched by the 80% of Spaniards who buy tickets for what is billed as the world's largest lottery payout.

El Gordo is expected to pay out some €2.1bn (£1.4bn) in prize money this year.

"The one who won't be getting lucky this year is El Calvo," said El Mundo newspaper. "It is his turn to stay at home."

Source: Guardian 

2003:

In a town called 'luck', many Christmas pundits win in the world's richest lottery

True to its name, a town called "luck" was among the winners of Spain's El Gordo Christmas draw - the world's richest lottery that makes scores of players millionaires and brings cheer to thousands of other winners.

After the late morning televised draw - which brought work and last-minute shopping to a standstill - Spaniards learnt that 60 winning tickets worth €2m each had been sold in the Catalan village of Sort, which means "luck" in the language of the north-east region.

Each year many trek there to buy tickets, making its lottery outlet - nicknamed "The Golden Witch" or La Bruixa d'Or - Spain's busiest at Christmas. This year, the top prize from a total of €1.8bn was shared out across a further six regions, from Galicia in the north to Andalucia in the south.

Unlike the British national lottery, the Spanish system always produces multiple winners who have bought fractions of a €200 ticket bearing a unique number and divided into 190 series. And each year, thousands of superstitious participants try to boost their luck any way they can.

On Friday, the Madrid-based lottery authorities reported a complete sell out across the series 220504 - which capriciously captures the date that the Prince of Asturias, the 35-year-old heir to the Spanish crown, is due to marry his fiancée Leticia Ortiz.

Following a belief that places cursed by misfortune during the year will be blessed with good luck in the Christmas draw, authorities on Friday also noted heavy ticket buying in Puertollano, a town in central Spain where nine workers at a Repsol oil refinery were killed in a blast in August. Many were rewarded with wins.

While almost 200 ticket holders won prizes in the millions, many reported small wins. "El Gordo isn't like any other lottery, it's a Christmas institution," a Madrid-based film student, Nayra Delgado, said. "My father wanted a ticket for Christmas and he won a small prize, so he's happy and so am I."

Source: The Independant 

2001:

Morbid appeal of Spain's Christmas lottery

For superstitious Spanish lottery ticket buyers, the September 11 date of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington is proving to hold a morbid fascination.

Tickets numbered 11901 have become the fastest sellers in the world's biggest ever annual lottery, the Christmas El Gordo draw on which Spaniards are expected to stake £1.2bn.

Lottery sellers said yesterday they had run out of tickets bearing the number after being deluged by requests.

"There are people who ring asking directly for the Bin Laden ticket," said Juanita Caballe of the official lottery shop in Amposta, eastern Spain.

At a similar shop in Gijon, northern Spain, Amalaia Lopez said: "People like to use their imagination when choosing their number but this time it has got particularly morbid."

All this may be explained by an old Spanish saying which claims "bad luck never comes without a good reason".

Every year Spaniards flock to buy El Gordo tickets in places where there has been a natural disaster on the basis that, after such bad luck, it is bound to be smiled upon.

Last year floods and storms meant east coast towns like Amposta were popular. Flash floods, forest fires and crashes increased ticket sale in various parts of Spain in recent years.

El Gordo will pay out some £800m when the winning numbers are drawn on December 22. Spaniards are expected to place £1.2bn, or £30 each, on what is the world's biggest single gambling event. Forty-nine out of every 50 Spaniards will be holding a ticket, or a share in a ticket.

Seventy per cent of the takings are given away in tens of thousands of, mainly modest, prizes. The remaining £400m goes into the state's coffers.

Source: Guardian 

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