Jesús Castillo, happy for those who won. sur

Spanish lottery ticket seller celebrates his birthday by handing out 750,000 euros in prizes

One win in Antequera was for half a million euros and there were seven others worth 35,000 euros each

SUR

Malaga

Thursday, 2 June 2022, 10:47

“Giving out a prize in difficult times like these makes me feel proud and happy,” says Jesús Castillo, the ONCE lottery ticket seller who has just distributed 745,000 euros to winners in Antequera. And, it just happened to be his 47th birthday on the same day.

There was one win for the highest amount of money that can be won on the ONCE lottery from Mondays to Thursdays – half a million euros – plus seven other prizes of 35,000 euros each from the draw on Tuesday 31 May.

As it was his birthday, Jesús bought himself six tickets for Tuesday’s draw, but was not among the winners. “Even though I didn’t win, it was a lovely birthday gift for me to be able to present people who don’t have much money with prizes like this,” he says.

Jesús, who has been working with ONCE for a year, walks around the industrial estate every morning, offering lottery tickets for sale. “It’s a really large and complicated area and I have to move around a lot, but when there is a big prize like this it brings other people hope that they might win something one day as well,” he says.

Tuesday’s draw was dedicated to energy saving, under the slogan ‘Energy. Energetic communities and self-production to save on electricity bills’. From Monday to Thursday this week the association for the disabled has dedicated the money from the sale of 20 million tickets to Environment Week to raise awareness of the importance of respecting and caring for the environment. The other winners this week were in the Canary Islands, Extremadura, Galicia and Valencia.