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Thousands Share Wealth In Spain's Christmas Lottery

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By MAR ROMAN, The Associated Press

Published: December 23, 2007

MADRID, Spain - Winners of Spain's Christmas lottery celebrated Saturday by drinking toasts and singing songs after thousands took a share of the $3.1 billion in prizes.

Up to 1,850 tickets carry the winning number - 06381 - with each holder receiving $430,000. The winning tickets were sold in 11 of Spain's 17 provinces and in cities including Madrid, Barcelona, Alicante or Almeria, lottery organizers said.

The winners of the second-prize tickets purchased them in the northeastern city of Barcelona.

Spaniards were glued to the radio and television as the prize numbers were called out in an event considered the start of the Christmas season. An estimated three out of four Spaniards and thousands of foreigners buy tickets in a tradition that stretches back to 1812.

Although other lotteries have bigger individual top prizes, Spain's is billed as the world's richest lottery for the total sum of prize money dished out.

The lottery shuns jackpots in favor of a share-the-wealth system in which thousands of numbers yield at least some degree of Christmas mirth. The idea is for the money to trickle through Spanish society, where office workers, families, sports clubs and other groups often pitch in to buy tickets together.

Spaniards have spent an estimated $4.8 billion nationwide in recent weeks to take part in what is by far the country's favorite Christmas tradition, an increase of 5.7 percent over last year.

The national lottery system originally was established as a charity during the reign of King Carlos III in 1763.

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