Spain's massive Christmas lottery draw gets under way today with its famous El Gordo jackpot prize

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Millions of people around the country will tune into the four-hour spectacle, where all the winning numbers are sung by schoolchildren, in the hope of a share of this year's almost 3 billion euro total prize pot

SUR in English

Malaga

Monday, 22 December 2025, 07:44 | Updated 08:06h.

Spain’s highly-anticipated state Christmas lottery with the famous El Gordo jackpot prize will be drawn today (Monday 22 December). Almost the whole of the country will come to a halt to watch schoolchildren sing the winning numbers at the Madrid theatre where the spectacle is staged.

The draw itself goes on for around four hours and is broadcast live on TV with on-going coverage on radio and online.

The undoubted stars of the ceremony are the children from the San Ildefonso school in Madrid, who sing the winning numbers and their corresponding prizes. The youngsters carefully catch the balls that are released from the two large drums and call out the numbers on them to the familiar tune that has been the soundtrack for the 22 December lottery for more than 300 years.

Of the numbers that lottery offices put on sale, the endings that sold out first were the traditional 13, 15 and 69, according to sources, who added that the odd numbers are usually the most sought after. Although five is the number on which El Gordo jackpot has fallen most often (32 times), the next most popular numbers are even numbers: four and six (27 times each), eight (25) and zero (23), while one is the number on which the first prize has ended the least (only eight times).

Winning tickets

The location where the big winning tickets were sold are revealed almost as soon as the top prize numbers come out of the revolving drums. This information has always played an important role in this lottery, with people traditionally buying their tickets when visiting places that have a record of selling high-value winning tickets.

One thing that has not changed this year is the value of the prizes to be distributed. The lucky people who own a tenth of the El Gordo number will get 400,000 euros; if it is the second prize, 125,000 euros; the third, 50,000 euros; fourth, 20,000 euros and fifth, 6,000 euros. These last two prizes are exempt from tax to the Treasury as they are less than 40,000 euros. For the rest of the prizes you must pay 20 per cent of the winning amount minus that amount in tax. For example, from the first prize, the tax authorities keep 72,000 euros (20% of 360,000), while the lucky person takes 328,000 euros. If it is the second prize, the winner takes 108,000 euros and the Treasury, 17,000 euros.

El Niño offers another chance

But don't worry if you don’t win the El Gordo this Christmas, there’s always the El Niño, the similar, but less well known, lottery draw that could bring you some extra cash in the new year on 6 January.