Spanish Christmas Lottery

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The Spanish Christmas Lottery (officially Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad [soɾˈteo e(ɣ)stɾaoɾðiˈnaɾjo ðe naβiˈðað] or simply Lotería de Navidad [loteˈɾi.a ðe naβiˈðað]) is a special draw of the Lotería Nacional, the weekly national lottery run by Spain's state-owned Loterías y Apuestas del Estado. The special Christmas draw takes place every December 22 and it is the biggest and most popular draw of the year.

Lotería Nacional, with its first draw held on 4 March 1812, is the second-longest continuously running lottery in the world.^{[citation needed]} This includes the years during the Spanish Civil War when the lottery draws were held in Valencia after the Republicans were forced to relocate their capital from Madrid. After the overthrow of the Republican government, the lottery continued uninterrupted in Francoist Spain. The first Christmas draw was held on 18 December 1812 in Cádiz and the grand prize was for the number 03604. The first time that the name Sorteo de Navidad was used was in 1892.

As measured by the total prize payout, the Spanish Christmas Lottery is considered the biggest lottery draw worldwide. In 2022, with 180 million pre-printed €20 tickets to sell (décimos), the maximum total amount available for all prizes would be €2.52 billion (seventy per cent of ticket sales).^[1] The total amount for the grand prize El Gordo ("the big one") would be €720 million.

In the Spanish-speaking and the English-speaking media it is sometimes just called El Gordo,^[2] even though that name really refers to the grand prize for any Spanish lottery.