The El Gordo (The Fat One) Christmas lottery is the most traditional lottery draw in Spain with the large percentage of the country’s population participating. In fact, this draw has become a national activity with 98% of Spain’s inhabitants playing. This is not really surprising when you consider that the El Gordo is the largest prize fund lottery game globally.

The typical Spanish citizen spends about €73 in the Christmas draw and in 2008 the prize fund is estimated to exceed a staggering €2.20 billion. Here are a number of important features of the El Gordo lottery:

· In excess of 13,000 prizes are paid out.

· It is operated by the Spanish Government.

· There is an excellent 1 in 6 chance of grabbing a cash prize.

· All prizes are paid out immediately and are tax exempt for Spain's residents.

· 70% of the revenue generated by ticket sales are paid out in prize money.

Ever since December 1812 this Spanish national lottery has followed exactly the same procedure every year. Two large spherical containers are used; one of them contains tens of thousands of small wooden balls representing all ticket numbers; the other one contains a smaller quantity of wooden balls representing the prizes to be drawn. In the Lotería Nacional hall in Madrid, students of the San Ildefonso School (formerly reserved for orphans of public servants) draw the numbers and corresponding prizes, singing the results audibly in front of the public while Spanish national TV and radio stations air the event.

Owing to the sheer quantity of numbers and prizes, this process takes roughly 3 hours to complete. In recent years, more than 4,800 individual numbers have scooped no less than €1,000 per billete (€100 per décimo) in the Christmas draw. Those who do not win often make the predictable comment that "it's health that really matters". Players who simply win their entry fee back will often re-invest the prize in a ticket for El Niño, the second most important draw, held on January the 6th every year.

The two vessel arrangement is the traditional way of drawing the numbers in Spanish lotteries but this approach is now reserved solely for the celebrated Christmas lottery draw. The rest of the weekly draws as well as the five other yearly El Gordo draws utilize five containers with ten balls in each, from where the winning numbers are picked.

Lotto shops in Spain usually only sell tickets for one or two numbers, so the winners of the principal prizes often reside in the same town or district or work for the same firm. In 2005, the winning number was sold in the town of Vic in Catalonia (population 37,825), whose citizens scooped in the region of €500 million.

Traditionally, you could only play the El Gordo if you were a Spanish resident. However, with the introduction of lottery ticket sales agents you now have the chance to partake in this internationally renowned Spanish national lottery regardless of where you reside in the world. Some worldwide El Gordo syndicates have also been established to not only allow more people access to this lotto but to enhance their probability of collecting cash prizes as well.