>
The Spanish Christmas Lottery (Sorteo de Navidad or Lotería de Navidad) is a national lottery game organized every year since 1812 by a branch of the Spanish Public Administration, now called Loterías y Apuestas del Estado. The name Sorteo de Navidad was used for the first time in 1892. As measured by the total prize payout, the Christmas Lottery is considered the biggest lottery worldwide. In 2006, if all of the tickets were sold, the total amount payout of prizes would be worth more than €2.142 billion (70% of ticket sales). The total amount of all prizes of the first category called El Gordo ("the big one") was €540,000,000 which was distributed among 180 winning tickets (billetes) that won €3,000,000 each. (Taken from Wikipedia).
According to the tradition the drawings have begun today at 9:00 a.m. and it will last around three hours, thus marking the start of the Christmas holidays in Spain.
Click HERE to see some pictures.
I will take this opportunity to wish all my fellow bloggers and readers
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
A Crime is Afoot 
>And a very merry Christmas and happy new year to you, Jose Ignacio.Best wishesMaxine.
>José Ignacio – Oh, how interesting! I didn't know that, although I'd heard of El Gordo before. Oh, and speaking of winning, if you haven't yet, you may want to check out my blog post for today…Thanks for the good wishes! I wish the best to you and your family, too.