How El Gordo 2023 went down: Long wait for top prize and more colourful than ever

El Gordo is one of the highest-paying lotteries in the world and a real spectacle in its home country of Spain. This year's draw took place - as always - on 22 December in the time-honoured Teatro Real opera house in Madrid. The hustle and bustle seems to get more colourful from year to year. In addition, the participants in the current edition had to wait an unusually long time for the jackpot.

Shortly before Christmas, we reported on the GGL's warning regarding participation in El Gordo in Germany. The tickets offered in secondary lotteries are "illegal" and participation is "punishable", according to the quintessence. Nevertheless, a lot of German players are likely to have taken part again. But of course nowhere near as many as in the home country of "the fat man", as "El Gordo" translates into German.

In fact, statistically speaking, every inhabitant in Spain owns around three lottery tickets. In recent years, the tickets sold have regularly had a total value of well over three billion euros. And the truly huge number of players involved in the draw largely treat the day of the draw as a veritable folk festival. On 22 December, everything seems to revolve around El Gordo - people dress up, often celebrate extensively and feverishly hope for the jackpot. This year, however, the eagerly awaited main prize only came at the very end of the event.

This is how the draw for El Gordo 2023 went

1. The El Gordo draw is strictly regulated. The ritual consists of pupils from the Ildefonso boarding school, aged between 8 and 14, calling out the winning numbers.
2. The corresponding balls are placed in a large grid ball. The 100,000 wooden balls do not contain individual numbers, as in the German lottery, but the complete five-digit winning numbers.
3. There is also a smaller grid ball containing a further 1807 balls with the prize money printed on them.
4. At the same time, exactly one ball from each of the two grid balls falls into a bowl: this is the winning number and the corresponding prize.
5. After the announcement by the children, the combinations are finally registered and secured.

The 2023 event started, as always, at 9.00am and took place, as always, at the Teatro Real in Madrid. For more than four hours, the players in the audience watched the process unfold as described above, without the grand prize being awarded. Finally, at 1.15pm, a young boy announced the jackpot "El Gordo" in a somewhat uncertain voice. A huge cheer went up from the local crowd. There was probably a similar sense of relief on the TV sets.

Most of the main winners come from Valencia

The long wait for El Gordo was worth it for those who had a ticket with the number 88008. There were a total of 185 tickets with this number. Most of these tickets were sold in the Valencia region. In particular, the small town of Vilamarxant, with a population of only around 10,000, saw a real bonanza. Some of the lucky people here became richer by (at least) several hundred thousand euros.

Unfortunately, lottery winnings are not tax-free in Spain. Winnings of 40,000 euros or more are always taxed by the tax authorities. A tax of 20 per cent is payable here. With a prize sum of 400,000 euros, this means net proceeds of 328,000 euros.

El Gordo is becoming ever more colourful and shrill

Of course, all participants hope to win the big prize in El Gordo. Apart from that, the draw is a huge event and a lot of fun for many Spaniards. The most loyal fans waited all night outside the Teatro Real to see the draw live and in person. Almost everyone had dressed up - wearing glittering hats, full Santa Claus outfits or came individually dressed. The general impression was that it had to be cheerful and crazy. According to media reports, there was even a "real" Pope in the audience this year. The fans listened and applauded with excitement as the children sang and when the jackpot was finally won, they literally went crazy.

Of course, Spanish television was there live. As well as numerous reports from the Teatro, TV stations went to the lottery shops where the winning tickets had been sold and interviewed participants on the streets of Madrid or at party locations. There was a general feeling of happiness in the air - even those who hadn't won were celebrating with the lucky ones. Champagne and other alcoholic drinks flowed freely and almost the entire nation was in a party mood.

Conclusion: Some Germans were also successful at El Gordo

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