Baby Jesus Lottery first prize winners celebrate their luck at Lotto 1 in L’escala. Only a good two weeks after “El Gordo” on Friday, “El Niño” brought thousands of people some very large profits totaling 700 million euros. Photo: Glòria Sánchez/EUROPA PRESS/dpa
All tickets with the lucky number 89,603 were sold in the small coastal town of L’Escala.
The picturesque town on the Costa Brava in Catalonia in the far north-east of Spain has just over 10,000 inhabitants. Since it is a tourist region, people in other parts of Spain and even foreign tourists should also be happy about the windfall if they bought raffle tickets while on holiday in L’Escala. The owner of the point of sale, Félix Pons, spoke on the TV channel RTVE of “ecstasy” and great joy among the neighbors.
Just over two weeks after the “El Gordo” Christmas lottery, “El Niño” also brought prizes to thousands of people across the country. The second prize totaling 37.5 million, which went to number 72289, was distributed more evenly. Players in all regions of Spain could cheer. Third prize went to ticket number 18918, for which a total of 12.5 million euros was distributed. As every year, millions of people watched the live television broadcast of the drawing of the lucky numbers in Madrid on Epiphany at home, in cafés, pubs and restaurants.
Last year, the main prize went to a single, very special region – the red wine stronghold of La Rioja, also in the north of the country. While people celebrated with red wine back then, the famous Catalan sparkling wine Cava naturally flowed freely in L’Escala.
The earliest antecedents of the Infant Jesus lottery date back to the 19th century. It has existed in its current form since 1941. In Spain, only the Christmas lottery is even bigger. On December 22, profits totaling a good 2.5 billion euros had already been distributed throughout Spain. This traditional lottery has been around for more than 200 years. It is considered the largest and oldest in the world.
(SDA)