Australian punters are being lured into a European Christmas lottery jackpot with a $3.2billion prize pool.
Controversial gambling agency Lottoland has been promoting Spain’s annual El Gordo – ‘the fat one’ – lottery in television commercials during Channel 9’s cricket coverage.
While El Gordo does have a multi-billion dollar pool its highest prize is €4 million, about $6 million.
A lottery official correlates balls with winning numbers during the El Gordo draw last year
Weather presenter Elena Minambres Hernando scored the $600,000 El Gordo prize last year
Lottery office staff celebrate selling the second-prize winning El Gordo ticket last year
Lottoland has naming rights of Brookvale Oval (pictured), home of the Manly Sea Eagles
Lottoland describes the El Gordo lottery as the biggest in the world and a ‘phenomenon that mobilises 90 per cent of the Spanish population year after year.’
‘It is simply the world’s biggest and most traditional lottery, and it was about time Australians had the chance to take part on the billions of dollars this lottery distributes every year,’ Lottoland states.
El Gordo, which has been running since 1812, is a one-off annual event. Tickets come with pre-printed numbers. It has been compared to a giant Christmas raffle.
Participants in the official El Gordo draw must be residents of Spain but Lottoland allows gamblers from other countries including Australia to bet online on the results. Lottoland matches the prize values and pays out directly.
The pool is huge but individual prizes are set at smaller amounts to spread the wins around. Tickets are printed with five digit numbers and up to 165 separate entries could purchase that same number.
Punters using Lottoland can choose their ticket number. A full bet costs $349.99. In Spain, gamblers tend to pool their money among family and friends to buy 1/10th tickets, called decimos. Lottoland is selling decimos for $49.99.
Weather presenter Elena Minambres Hernando won €400,000 (about $600,000) last year
A vendor shows her El Gordo tickets at Puerta del Sol square in Madrid before last year’s draw
‘Monica’ celebrates selling the second-prize winning Christmas lottery ticket in Spain last year
The company is also selling 1/100th portions for $6.99.
The top prize is capped at €4million and the odds of winning that amount are one in 100,000.
There are 17 ways to win and a one in 10 chance of winning something in the draw on December 22.
The draw is televised live in Spain and can take more than three hours. The main attraction is the appearance of the main prize – El Gordo – which can happen at any time during the draw.
There are 1794 smaller prizes worth €1000 (approximately $1400) and more than 10,000 prizes worth between €200 (approximately $280) and €40,000 (approximately $56,000).
Last year a small town on the outskirts of Madrid where unemployment is rife scooped six-figure wins for much of the population.
Weather presenter Elena Minambres Hernando was one of the townspeople of Brea de Tajo who scored €400,000 (about $600,000). She was having her make-up done before going on air when she learnt of the windfall.
A worker holds out the ball showing the top prize during the draw of El Gordo last year
School children sing out the winning numbers during the El Gordo draw in Madrid in 2015
Minambres dashed into the Telemadrid studio to share the news with her colleagues during the broadcast of a morning magazine show.
‘I can’t even talk,’ Ms Minambres screamed through tears. ‘I don’t believe it.’
‘I’ve always wondered what people feel like when they win. You see it on TV, everyone celebrating, but when it comes to you, you don’t know how to react.’
Lottoland, which has more than 600,000 registered users in Australia, accepts bets on the results of more than 30 different lottery draws, including the US Powerball, the EuroMillions and El Gordo.
It has offices in Darwin and Sydney but is based in Gibraltar.
In September, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson called on the firm to be banned because it was ‘killing Australian jobs’.
Ms Hanson said Lottoland’s ability to take bets on foreign lottery results would harm Australian newsagents who sold local lottery tickets.
‘Australian newsagencies are facing huge losses because the government is allowing Lottoland to continue cutting into their profits,’ she said.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has called on Lottoland to be banned from Australia