About El Gordo Barcelona Lottery

El Gordo is the biggest lottery in the world. The name El Gordo means "The Fat One." The Spanish Christmas Lottery is called "el Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad" or just Lotería de Navidad in Spanish. It is the biggest lottery in the world in terms of overall prize money payouts, hence the name "El Gordo" lottery, which translates as the Fat One or Fatty. El Gordo is actually the nickname of the first prize winning ticket number.

This huge lottery is drawn on 22nd December every year and the whole of Spain watches on TV. In 2013 El Gordo celebrates its 201st anniversary. The lottery drawing ceremony is at Teatro Real de Madrid in Madrid, Spain and is broadcast live on Spanish TV channel "La 1" and on the Internet on the RTVE.es website from 8am. The lottery draw starts at 9am.

2011 was called the "fattest" El Gordo in history so far called "El Gorda más gorda de la historia." The biggest winning number in 2011 paid out 4 million euros. And that figure stayed the same in 2012 and now in 2013. In 2013 the biggest winning number also pays 4 million euros. The total prize amount in 2013 will be €2.240.000.00 - over 2.2 billion euros that can be won by just over 15,000 winning numbers. Read how the ticket system works further down this page. Buena Suerte - Bon Sort - Good Luck!

Where to buy El Gordo Barcelona Lottery tickets?

In Spain can buy El Gordo tickets at lottery offices in Barcelona at hypermarkets, on high streets and at many tobacconist shops called Estancos. Many businesses like bars offer parts of tickets called participaciones. You can also buy El Gordo tickets online, if you are in Spain and outside Spain, there are various websites that offer El Gordo tickets, but be sure to check them to avoid fraud.

The biggest winning ticket of the "el Gordo" Spanish Christmas is usually worth about 3 million euros in total, but what makes the Spanish Christmas lottery the biggest in the world, is that there are many winning numbers with prizes of smaller amounts. The El Gordo lottery pays out more lottery prizes than any other lottery draw in the world, which is why the Spanish Christmas lottery is the biggest lottery payout in the world. Almost everyone in Spain buys one or more tickets for "El Gordo" Spanish Christmas lottery with an average cost of 70 euros per person.