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El Gordo, the World's Largest Lottery !
El Gordo, the World’s Largest Lottery !
The Spanish El Gordo (‘the Fat One’ or ‘the big one’) lottery has been around for a long time. The first El Gordo drawing took place in 1812 and ever since the Christmas drawing has generated excitement throughout Europe. The annual Christmas draw has jackpots totaling 3 billion Euros. ($3,969,467,877 USD) making it the richest lottery on the planet. The El Gordo lottery makes more millionaires in a single draw than most lotteries make in a year. The drawings have a long and rich tradition in Spain and have changed very little since the first drawing in 1812. The drawings are held in Madrid and students from the San Ildefonso School (the school was once restricted to orphans and the children of civil servants) draw the lottery numbers and then sing the results.
Two spherical containers are used for the drawings and the larger of the two containers is filled with tens of thousands of balls with unique five digit numbers and the smaller container is 1,787 wooden balls with prizes in Euros on each ball. One child sings the number while another sings the prize. Because of the large number of prizes the drawing takes about three hours. The drawings are televised and generate a lot of excitement in Spain. All prizes are paid in a lump sum and are tax free unlike American lotteries where taxes can easily take over half of a large jackpot. In addition to the Christmas drawing other drawings take place throughout the year.
El Gordo tickets have two grids, one grid with numbers from 1 through 54 and a second grid containing numbers from 1 through 9. Players must select five numbers in the first grid and one in the second. El Gordo lottery tickets are sold throughout Spain and cost (euro)1.50. (About $1.98 USD) Future El Gordo draws this year will take place in September, October, November and of course Christmas. Players who want to purchase El Gordo tickets may purchase online lottery tickets for these exciting draws. Players need not be Spanish nationals to play and details are readily available at the official El Gordo website. El Gordo lottery results are available online and are posted in several languages including English.
It is easy to see why El Gordo is one of the most popular and played lotteries in the world. The odds of winning a prize in the El Gordo lottery are probably better than in any other major lottery. American lottery players should have no trouble purchasing tickets for this popular and profitable lottery.
The World's Biggest Lotteries
The World’s Biggest Lotteries
Lotteries are one of the oldest forms of gambling known to man. All across the ancient world lotteries were played. The construction of the Great Wall of China was partially financed through lotteries. The American Revolution was financed by various lotteries and venerable educational institutions such as Harvard and Princeton were started with lottery money. In Europe lotteries have a long and colorful history and cities and nations financed public works projects and provided aid to the poor with lottery generated revenues. It comes as no surprise that many of the world’s largest lotteries are found in Europe. Italy’s SuperEnaLotto is one of Europe’s largest and routinely offers jackpots in the hundreds of millions.
The UK National Lottery is the largest in the United Kingdom and one of Europe’s biggest. The lottery is run by gaming giant Camelot and players can buy UK national lottery tickets online. Best of all jackpots are paid in a lump sum and are tax free unlike US lotteries where taxes can easily eat up over 50% of a lotto jackpot. The National Lottery funds the ‘Big Lottery Fund’ which supports various causes and charities. The UK lotto has fourteen separate machines that can be used for lottery draws and many of the machines are named after characters in Arthurian legend such as Merlin, Arthur, Guinevere, Galahad, Vyvyan and Lancelot. The lottery is exceptionally popular and players from outside the UK can purchase online lottery tickets for the UK National Lottery.
EuroMillions is a pan European lottery and one of the world’s largest lotteries. Like most European lotteries Euromillions jackpots are tax free and paid in a lump sum. In 2006 three extremely ticket holders shared a ââ¬183,000,000($235,770,664.19 USD jackpot. Euromillions jackpots routinely exceed ââ¬100,000,000. ($128,822,882.59 USD) Euromillions lottery tickets can be bought online at the official website.
Powerball is an American multi state mega jackpot lottery. Powerball jackpots start at $20 million dollars and if there is no winner the jackpot is rolled over until there is a winner. Powerball jackpots in excess of $100 million are relatively common. Powerball winners have the options of a lump sum payout or an annuity. Many players choose the annuity because of the heavy taxation of lump sum payouts. The largest Powerball jackpot was $365 million which was shared by eight co workers in Nebraska. An agreement reached in 2010 now allows the cross sale of Powerball and Mega Millions lottery tickets in most jurisdictions.
Mega Millions is another American multi state lottery game. Tickets are $1 and jackpots start at $12 million and, like Powerball, the jackpot is rolled over until there is a winner. Mega Millions has provided the largest lottery jackpot on record anywhere in the world. In 2007 two Mega Millions ticket holders split an amazing $390 million dollar jackpot. Typically Mega Millions jackpots are paid in 26 yearly installments unless the cash option is selected. As has been mentioned most lottery jurisdictions in the US now sell Powerball and Mega Millions lottery tickets.
Spain’s El Gordo lottery is considered by some as the largest lottery in the world. El Gordo typically offers billions of Euros in prizes and the Christmas El Gordo drawings are legendary across Europe. Players can purchase El Gordo lotto tickets online at the official website or at one of the many online lottery services. Although El Gordo jackpots are not record setting the amount of money won is the largest in the world. There are hundreds of El Gordo winners every year.