English in Madrid

    Source: dylan nolte on Unsplash   Spain’s El Gordo lottery dishes out Christmas joy with €2.5bn pot Unemployed mother of two is among winners as world’s biggest lottery hands out prizes of up to €325,000 A Gambian man who crossed from the Mediterranean by boat and an unemployed mother of two were among those rejoicing after the world’s biggest lottery sprayed money across Spain. On Thursday, the country celebrated the Christmas lottery known as El Gordo, or the Fat One, which dished out €2.5bn (£2.2bn) in prize money. The most sought-after ticket – worth €325,000 after taxes – was sold in cities across the country, setting off raucous celebrations that spanned from the north-western city of A Coruña to Almería in the south. As the numbers were called out in Madrid’s Teatro Real theatre, the audience erupted into wild cheers as they realised a member of the audience was among the lucky ones holding a winning ticket. Perla Gavidia, originally from P...

Source: dylan nolte en Unsplash EuroMillions: Lottery winners scooped £184m with lucky dip ticket  The UK's biggest EuroMillions lottery winners have been revealed as a couple from Gloucester who scooped £184m with a lucky dip ticket.  Joe and Jess Thwaite won a record-breaking £184,262,899 - making them richer than Adele - last week.  Mrs Thwaite, 44, who has two children with her 49-year-old husband, said the win will give them "time to dream".  The previous record was held by an anonymous winner who banked £170m in October 2019.  After be ing introduced by TV presenter Dermot O'Leary at a glitzy ceremony on Thursday , Mr Thwaite confirmed that he had already left his job as a communications sales manager.  His wife is also "considering" what to do about her role in a hairdressing salon she runs with her sister.  Mr Thwaite discovered he had a win when he got up to walk the dogs at 05:15 BST last Tuesday.  He said "he didn't know wh...

Source: Wikipedia ( Thirunavukkarasye-Raveendran ) The Christmas lottery launderers   Winning tickets are sought out by crooks looking to avoid pay ing tax on their ill-gotten gains   In the hours after the winning numbers in Spain’s massive El Gordo Christmas lottery are drawn every December 22, discreetly dressed men and women carrying suitcases stashed with bank notes fan out across the country headed for bars, lottery outlets, and banks before the fortunate owners of the prized tickets cash them in . Acting on behalf of   wealthy clients, their mission is to buy their winning tickets: they pay cash, ask no questions, and offer a generous bonus on top. It’s a very simple way to help reduce their clients’ tax bill. “Everybody knows that the Christmas lottery has always been used to launder money,” says veteran tax inspector José María Peláez Marcos, adding that it is almost impossible for the authorities to detect this kind of fraud. “Lottery ticke...

Source: dylan nolte on Unsplash What are your mathematical chances of winn ing Spain’s Christmas lottery? Contrary to popular belief , there’s no point stand ing in line at La Manolita lottery seller For generations, Christmas in Spain has been inextricably linked to a lottery known as El Gordo (literally, The Fat One) because of its large prizes. For a few hours on the morning of December 22, millions of people throughout   the country tune in to the radio or television to hear students from San Ildefonso school – a former   orphanage  – sing out the winning numbers. Images of winners uncorking champagne bottles and tearfully embracing one another get aired for days afterwards . In terms of brand recognition , few companies can compete with the Spanish Christmas lottery, which has been held since the early 19th century. Besides pay ing out more than any of the other state lotteries organised throughout the year , the Gordo is picked a...

  Source: Hush Naidoo Jade Photography on Unsplash Spain's dilemmas over 'Eurovegas' mega casino plans Spain's two great rival cities, Barcelona and Madrid, are vying to attract a mega casino project planned by US multi-billionaire mogul Sheldon Adelson. Dubbed "Eurovegas", the vast 16bn euro ($21bn; £13bn) complex of hotels and casinos will, say Spanish officials, generate up to 200,000 jobs. For a country with a struggling economy and high jobless rate, the temptations are clear. But Mr Adelson's investment comes with conditions, and some argue he should have to play by the same rules as others in Spain. The contest to win over the 14th richest man in the world has become a casino version of the El Clasico derby that Spaniards are more used to witnessing on the football pitch.   Barcelona, the Catalan capital, has beaches and a port where cruise ships dock on a daily basis. Madrid, the national capital, has the bigger, and better-con...

Source: dylan nolte on Unsplash You've won £10, shopkeepers told Lotto winner... then they claimed his £157,000 prize for themselves When Gwyn Badham-Davies checked his lottery ticket at his local newsagent’s, he was delighted to hear he had won £10. But the hearty congratulations offered by shopkeeper Anne Jeevarajah as she handed over the cash concealed a cynical plot to steal the small fortune he had actually won. Jeevarajah had discovered her loyal customer’s ticket carried five winning numbers and the bonus ball – worth £156,659. A week after lying to Mr Badham-Davies, she and her husband Alfred contacted Camelot and tried to claim the prize.   Officials became suspicious, however, because of the length of time that had passed since the winning ticket had been registered on the National Lottery computer in their shop.  Police were called in and found the Jeevarajahs could not confirm where and when the ticket had been bought.  They have now been jailed...

Source: dylan nolte on Unsplash Lottery win: Euromillions couple are 'tickled pink'  A couple from Largs in Ayrshire have been named as the winners of the £161m Euromillions jackpot. Chris Weir said she and her husband Colin were "tickled pink" when they realised they had scooped Tuesday's jackpot. "I even had a glass of white wine which is something I normally only do at Christmas!" laughed Chris. The prize was Europe's biggest ever and was capped after a series of rollovers.  On the night of the draw Chris was checking their numbers on the BBC's Red Button digital text service about midnight on the television in their bedroom.  "I started circling the numbers I had matched but wasn't doing very well. Then on the fifth line, all the circles seemed to join up."  The telephone line run by Camelot for claims was closed. Chris and husband Colin sat up all night they were so excited.  "When we first realised we had won, it felt...

Source: Wikipedia (OsvaldoGago ) Protestor pockets $1.8m lotto win  A demonstrator camped in a central Madrid square to protest the economic crisis has won 1.3 million euros in the national lottery.  "The prize of 1.3 million euros ($1.77 million) has been attributed this weekend. We tried in vain to get in touch with the winner all day on Sunday," said Ignacio Garcia, the head of Serviapuestas, the website of the Spanish lottery. "We were finally able to speak to him today (Monday) and he told us that he was in the encampment in the Puerta del Sol, so that is why he had not been able to reply by telephone or check his emails," he said. The winner is a 34-year-old man from Madrid. Protests over the economic crisis and soaring unemployment began in Madrid on May 15 and fanned out to city squares nationwide as word spread by Twitter and Facebook among demonstrators also known as "M-15", "Spanish Revolution" and "Real Democracy Now...

Source: Wikipedia (Basher Eyre)   Dying man wins bet he would live A Buckinghamshire man diagnosed with terminal cancer is to collect a second winning payout of £5,000 after bett ing he would stay alive. Jon Matthews, 59, from Milton Keynes, was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer linked to asbestos, in 2006 and told he had months to live. He placed two bets , each with a £100 stake at odds of 50/1, that he would be alive in June 2008 and in June 2009. A third wager will earn him a further £10,000 if he lives until 1 June 2010. The widower will collect his second lot of £5,000 winnings on Monday. Mr Matthews said: "I think I'm the first person in the world to bet on my own life. "When I was diagnosed I was told mesothelioma was a death sentence . "I wasn't that fussed because everyone has to die some time. "But the interesting thing for me was how long it would take - would it take weeks or years?" Mr Matthews said he pl...

Lottery officials continue search for owner of £110m ticket • Madrid shop sold ticket for biggest single lottery prize • EuroMillions winner may be tourist, says seller Lottery officials across Europe were searching today for one of the continent's richest people, who may still be unaware that they possess a lottery ticket worth £110m. The EuroMillions jackpot is the world's biggest ever single lottery prize, but the Madrid lottery shop that sold the ticket has * so far  been unable to trace the buyer. If found, he or she would shoot into the club of the richest people in Europe. If the winner were British , it would mean join ing the Sunday Times rich list at No 492 — tied with the Bee Gees brothers Barry and Robin Gibb. A sign pinned to the window of the Black Cat lottery shop, just off Madrid's central Plaza de Cibeles, boasted today that this was the place where the €126m ticket had been sold. The shop's owner, Paloma Cateleiro, said ...