Thursday, September 06, 2007
Have you won big on a Spanish lottery?
Had an email from someone today asking for the winning lottery numbers from specific date and, whilst I'm pleased to oblige, if there's one thing there's more of than fiestas in Spain, it's lotteries! So, the purpose of this post is to give you some brief details about the most common lotteries in Spain and, to show you how and where you can find Spanish lottery results online.
Now, I don't wish to encourage anyone into betting and gambling - remember; you can lose money, it can be addictive and that's very, very bad for you.
On the other hand, here's a chance for a little bit of holiday fun and, if you don't win you can donate your money to a good cause in the process ...
ONCE Charity Lottery for the Blind
The lottery you will see most frequently in Spain, because it's sold in the streets, is the ONCE.
The letters stand for Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles (Spanish National Organization for the Blind). So, even if your luck is out, you know that what you spent on the ticket will help someone blind or partially-sighted.
Their regular lottery is run Monday to Friday and on Sundays. Monday to Thursday, currently, there's a top prize of 35,000 euros (about £23,000), if you have the whole five figure number and, smaller prizes for getting the last 4, 3, 2 or 1 figures. You get your stake back if you have the last figure, but most people simply exchange this for another ticket for the next lottery.
On Fridays ONCE have a special big draw. The prize, currently, is 6 million euros (about £4 million), if you have both the five figure number and the three figure SERIE. On Sundays, that same number / serie combination attracts a prize of 6,000 euros (around £4,000), per month, for 25 years. 
You can buy ONCE tickets from authorized cupón sellers in the street, as well as in ONCE kiosks, which are clearly identified by the word "ONCE", in busy areas and shopping centers and, often shops and bars will have tickets on sale too.
But bearing in mind that many ticket sellers are blind or partially-sighted (pointing to the ticket you want probably won't work), it would be helpful to familiarize yourself with numbers in Spanish from 0 to 9. Then you can ask for your "lucky number"; i.e. a ticket terminating with that figure.
For instance, if you want a ticket that ends in 7, say "Dame un siete" (Give me a seven) or just "Un siete" (A seven) will get the message across, because this is a common way for locals to choose their tickets.
Don't know how to pronounce numbers in Spanish, watch this:
Video: Numbers and Counting in Spanish
You can be more fussy and exact over your choice, of course, but I'm just trying to make this simple and fun for the non-Spanish speaker.
Where to check your winnings: at the ONCE website.
Results are only displayed in Spanish, but since lottery numbers and dates are all in Arabic numerals coupled with the information you'll have on the ticket itself, you should have no problem finding your way around.
Video: Days of the Week and Dates in Spanish
More about ONCE and the Cupón Diario (Daily cupón) at Wikipedia
State Loteria Nacional (National Lottery)
This facade of the lottery Administration No 4 in Motril, Granada, shows the typical livery of these official establishments.
The next most commonly seen lottery is the state Loteria Nacional (National Lottery), which was created as a way to increase the State Treasury without bankrupting contributors.
So, if you've ever heard the phrase, "Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at maths", know that this jest is not at all far from the truth!
With that in mind, you can, nevertheless, easily buy tickets in the special lottery administrations L.A.E.- Loterías y Apuestas del Estado (State Lotteries and Betting) - lottery ticket / betting shops, found in most towns.
Where to check your numbers online:
At ElGordo.com, you can check results for the Loteria Nacional (National Lottery), Loteria Nacional Jueves (Thursday National Lottery) and many other Spanish lotteries, plus EuroMillions ... In English.
Loterias.com provide the results, in Spanish, of a huge selection of lotteries, listed in the left hand menu of their site; Sorteo de NAVIDAD (Navidad = Christmas; this is the same as El Gordo), Sorteo del Niño, Loteria Primitiva, Bonoloto, Lotería Nacional, Lotería Nacional Jueves, 1X2 La Quiniela, El Gordo de la Primitiva, Cupon de la O.N.C.E, Euromillones, Oro de la Cruz Roja, Loto Catalunya, Quinigol, Lototurf and Quíntuple Plus.
I hadn't even heard of half of those, much less know how they work, so I'm guessing you won't need to know either! For regular, hardened punters, they also provide the numbers for some of the most popular, including ONCE, both National lotteries and Euromillions, by email.
And the Loterias section at Spanish portal, Hispavista, displays some of the most common latest drawn lottery numbers, also in Spanish.
Spanish Christmas Lottery (Sorteo de Navidad)
You can't mention lotteries in Spain without mentioning the Spanish Christmas Lottery (Sorteo de Navidad), affectionately known as El Gordo (The Fat One) that takes place every year on December 22nd and, which, as ElPeriodico say, has been "Repartiendo ilusiones desde 1812" (Distributing hope since 1812). The price of a ticket in that first Gordo of December 18th, 1812, was 40 reales (10 pesetas / 6 cents / 4 pence) and the top prize was equivalent to 240 euros (£160). It went to ticket number 03604.
Last year it went to number 20297 and the prize was 300,000 euros (about £200,000) for a decimo (one ticket) with the correct number and serie. You need the whole strip of 10 tickets to get millions, but this draw is famous for distributing lots of pretty decent prizes, rather than one huge one.
In fact, El Gordo is not known for distributing a lot of hope in the Canary Islands, just some fifth prizes in Icod de los Vinos last year and a portion of a first prize, but on tickets that had been purchased in Seville.
We are told that, "Madrid and Catalunya are the communities that invest the most money in the Christmas lottery and are also the most fortunate at the time of obtaining large prizes." Maybe "invest" isn't exactly the word I would use, but we get the principal! Just to make you feel really sick, Blog Navidad have images of happy winners and such from last year's El Gordo draw.
What if I've Won?
IdealSpain say, "According to the Spanish State Lottery, non-Spaniards can participate in the lottery and claim prizes just the same as Spanish citizens. The only restriction is that any prize winnings must stay within Spain or you face paying taxes on the amount won upon entering another country."
Well, I would counter that: what does it matter if it's taxed in your country? Whatever you end up with, after tax, is still extra. Buy a ticket and win first! :)
Generally, you have 30 days to claim your winnings, so don't hang about. If it's one of the state lotteries, go to any of the lottery administrations L.A.E.- Loterías y Apuestas del Estado. If it is ONCE, find a kiosk. If you've you won a big prize, you'll be able to pay someone to translate. If you've won a really, really big prize and you don't know what to do with it, give me a call! :)
No, I don't know how you could claim from outside Spain, other than contacting one of those organizations via their websites for advice.
Other Advice and Warnings
In the information given at Wikipedia, it says that, "Like Spain's National Lottery agency, ONCE does not sell its lottery products over internet, and both bodies continuously issue warnings to that effect ..."
Well, I would differ. The official state lotteries and betting do now sell some of their products online, as do various of the administrations (betting shops), as well as many of the sites listed above who provide results. I think that some of them may be perfectly legal and trustworthy these days - but I have absolutely no idea which ones might be. Use caution. As with everything, purchase online at your own risk. I'm merely providing a list of places to check the results of tickets that you may have purchased in person.
Everyone else mentions the email scams that appear in the name of the Spanish lottery, so I will too. ElGordo.com have a page about scams here and the official state lottery site also have a page about scams, in English here. There is only one rule to follow there, "To win a prize of the Spanish lottery is essential to have purchased previously lottery or bets ..."
In other words, if you didn't buy a ticket you CAN'T have won. Period.
