Tag Archives: lotteries
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.
Mobile Lottery Options
Mobile Lottery Options
Playing the lottery can involve a trip to the lottery terminal, standing in long lines to purchase lottery tickets when the jackpots are big and dealing with traffic. Now some lotteries are giving lottery players the chance to purchase lottery tickets with mobile devices and cell phones. Many lotteries also allow internet access and the ability to create a lottery account online. Social networking websites such as Twitter allow lottery players to check lottery results instantly using cell phones and other mobile devices.
In the UK lottery players can create an account with the UK National Lottery and players can enter and purchase lottery tickets using text messages. Users of this service report that it is quick and efficient. In South Africa ATM access and SMS banking have been combined to allow lottery players the opportunity to use cell phones to play the South African lottery. There are now mobile applications available in the UK that allows players to receive lottery results via text message. The service is available on all phone networks in the UK and the charge is 25p per message.
There are mobile phone applications that allow lottery players access to services that will help the player pick lottery numbers. Statistics have shown that most big lottery winners have had their ‘lucky’ numbers picked by some sort of random number generator. There are many services available that provide access to lottery number generators and these can easily be found online. Many of these services offer free accounts and also provide lottery results.
Lottery players who find themselves in another city or town can use mobile maps to find the nearest lottery retailer. Simply go to the mobile web and scan the maps to find the nearest lottery retailer. Mobile banking is becoming popular in many parts of the world and those who have this service can purchase lottery tickets at the terminal using a cell phone. This service is expected to be widely available in the very near future.
In the US some states have now established websites and some allow players to make an online lottery purchase. Although there have been some problems with online ticket sales due to anti online gambling legislation in the US the problems are swiftly being resolved. States that allow players to purchase lottery tickets online hope to boost lottery related revenue to help with rising budget deficits. It is only a matter of time before US lotteries catch up with their European counterparts.