Spain's El Gordo (The Fat One) - World's Biggest Lottery Monday Dec 22,2014

 

The first winners of the world's biggest lottery payoff have begun to emerge as they share a €2.5billion (£1.96billion) pot of cash to be divided among thousands of Spanish ticketholders.

A single El Gordo ticket costs €200 (£168), but normally whole communities share a ticket. Most punters buy a tenth of a ticket at €20

The main prizes per ticket are, 400,000 euros for the first prize; 125,000 for the second; 50,000 for the third; 20,000 for the fourth; and 6,000 for the fifth

It's the world's richest lottery. Spaniards are glued to televisions as awards are announced in a program that often lasts four hours

The big drum contains a total of 100,000 wooden balls with the lottery numbers and the small drum contains a total of 1,807 wooden balls with the prizes' quantities

Officials verify the balls in the build-up to the hotly-awaited draw

School children sing the first prize of 'El Gordo' Christmas Lotteryduring the draw at the Royal Theatre in Madrid. 

Tickets bearing the lucky first prize number 13437, in what is known as El Gordo - the Fat One - were sold from Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands, to La Coruna, on the north-west tip of mainland Spain.They were sold from the province of Cadiz, just west of Gibraltar, to Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast, just south of the French frontier

 Jorge (L) and Gonzalo Lovera (2L) celebrate after they won a top prize ticket number in Madrid, Spain

 

This year's winning number is 13437, with a total of 4 million euros for the top prize to be shared between 10 ticket holders

 

Lottery Administration shop owners on General Pastor Avenue in Eliana near Valencia celebrate having sold the first prize

 Fernando Moreno (L), owner of the lottery administration 'The Lucky Little Angel', cries excited as he celebrates selling the number 07617 that was awarded with one of the two fourth prizes in Cuenca

Neighbourhoods in towns and cities across Spain erupted with Champagne-soaked scenes of joy as it dawned on this year's lucky winners that they had scooped the €400,000 (£314,000) first prize of Spain's 'El Gordo' (The Fat One) Christmas lottery.

Tales of joy and celebration are widely broadcast on TV stations, providing Spain's struggling population a rare moment of relief after another year of a brutal financial crisis.

Note

The largest jackpot the the UK was scooped by Euromillions winners Colin and Chris Weir in 2011.

The husband and wife from Largs in Ayreshire took home £161,653,000 and said they were 'tickled pink' by their extraordinary stoke of luck.By winning the jackpot they became the biggest lottery winners in Europe an have held the title ever since.  

In May, grandmother Gloria McKenzie became the biggest single lottery winner ever when she alone won a $590.5million Powerball jackpot in Zephyrhills, Florida.