Spain’s bumper Christmas lottery “El Gordo” starts dishing out millions of euros in prizes

MADRID (AP) — People across Spain are tuning into the television, radio and internet as children from Madrid’s San Ildefonso school begin singing out the prize-winning numbers in Spain’s huge Christmas lottery. The lottery is known as “EL Gordo” (the fat one) and will shell out 400,000 euros ($440,000) to holders of 20-euro tickets bearing the top-prize number. The immensely popular lottery will distribute a total of 2.6 billion euros in prizes this year, much of it in small winnings. Street and bar celebrations normally break out, with winners uncorking bottles of sparkling wine and singing and dancing.