El Gordo

Want to participate in the world’s biggest lottery jackpot? Then you definitely should look into buying a ticket for the Spanish lottery game known as El Gordo. Also known as the Christmas Lottery because it takes place each year around Christmas (the drawing is held just once per year), the lottery has by far the largest jackpot ever offered – a whopping €2.3 billion.

Yes, that’s right – if you won the jackpot with the El Gordo lottery in 2010, you would have become an instant billionaire, with a cool $3 billion in the bank (of course taxes would be taken out of that money, but seriously, when you’re talking about that kind of a jackpot, even 60% taxes wouldn’t hurt all that much and most countries don’t have such high taxes anyway).

Game Type

El Gordo is the only multi-billion lottery game in the entire world. It is commonly nicknamed “the fat one” because of the fact that it offers such a massive jackpot when compared to other lottery games around the world. While the game is called the Christmas lottery, the exact date the lottery takes place is on the 22^nd of December each year (ensuring that the winner of the jackpot will have a very Merry Christmas indeed). The game is a sweepstakes style lottery as opposed to the more traditional style of lottery games which most people buy. The tickets are fairly expensive, though with a jackpot like that, they’d have to be.

Chances of Winning

Every El Gordo ticket gives you seven chances to win due to the numerous drawings that take place for this one massive lottery game. The drawings actually take place all day long and are considered to be a kind of a holiday in Spain.

The odds of winning the main jackpot are 1 in 31,625,100. However, there are also eight additional prizes offered, with the ninth prize having odds of winning of just one in 10, meaning that your chances of winning some from the El Gordo lottery game are quite good.

Participating in the Game

The El Gordo lottery game is open to anyone who cares to purchase a ticket and tickets are offered both at kiosks throughout Europe and online through specialized retailers of lottery tickets.

Cost of Tickets

Tickets can cost as much as €500 for the complete “series,” though smaller, partial series of tickets are available for as little €10. In all cases however, as with anything, the more times you play, the more likely you are to walk away with the massive El Gordo jackpot. The amount varies each year, however, as noted above, the total for 2010 was €2.3 billion so it’s a good bet that the amount of money this year will be at least that much if not more. Best of luck and enjoy the game!