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La Voz de Cádiz
Sunday, 24 November 2024, 08:50
The lottery sales outlets in the areas affected by the Dana in Valencia have experienced an increase in the sale of tickets for the Christmas draw. Due to common superstition many people are asking for the last two numbers ending in 29, the date of the flood, which has now become the most sought-after ticket. Others have even been requesting the specific date of the flood - 29104.
This has been highlighted by Anapal (Spain's lottery administration body) in a press release, in which it explains that all the preparations are being finalised for this year's draw. The total of prize monies for this year amounts to just over 2.7 billion euros.
Due to the catastrophe that Valencia has experienced from the Dana, Anapal is combining all the preparations for the big draw with a charity campaign that it has created to raise funds to help the lottery sellers affected by the disaster to recover their trade.
To date collections for this campaign have already reached more than 77,000 euros thanks to the collaboration of lottery outlets throughout Spain, as well as the contribution of Anapal itself with an amount of 30,000 euros. The money raised will be shared out among the Valencian lottery sellers whose businesses have been hit, regardless of whether or not they are Anapal members.
To this end Anapal has appealed to those in the lottery business and the public to join this act of solidarity by donating money through the website: ayudavalencia.anapal.net. "With this initiative our aim is to help, to be at the side of the people who need us and to do our bit as the main association of lottery sellers that we are," stated Anapal's president, Borja Muñiz Urteaga.
The Christmas lottery draw is the most important of the year, as it represents more than 30% of the annual total collected in public gambling. According to data from the Sociedad Estatal de Loterías y Apuestas del Estado (SELAE, the state lottery organisation), Spain has clocked up 211 of the special Christmas lottery draws.
Taking all the draws together, three numbers have been the most frequently drawn: 5, then 4 and 6, which have been drawn on 32 and 27 occasions respectively.
"The closer we get to the last months of the year, lottery outlets start to fill up with people asking for specific numbers based on superstitions or omens. Normally birthdays or special dates tend to be the numbers chosen, as well as family traditions in which they always buy the same lottery ticket on the same dates," says Urteaga for Anapal.
If we analyse the winning series since 1812, the most repeated two-digit endings have been 85 (seven times), 57 (six times) and 64, 65, 75, 90 and 97 (five times each). Similarly, at the other end of the lucky numbers list, there are also end numbers that have never won first prize (El Gordo, the big, fat prize): 09, 10, 21, 25, 31, 34, 34, 41, 42, 43, 51, 54, 59, 67, 78 and 82.
By cities, four have been the most graced with El Gordo, which amounts to a prize of 4,000,000 euros (400,000 per 'décimo' ticket). In order, the first prize has fallen to the capital of Spain 84 times. It is followed by Barcelona, which has won 44 times and, to a lesser extent, Seville with 19 times, then Bilbao and Valencia, 16 and 15 times respectively. The ranking is completed by Zaragoza, where the first prize has been won 13 times, and Cadiz, which has also won 13 times.
By region, according to the distribution of tickets done by SELAE for this year, Madrid is where most Christmas lottery purchases are made (575 million euros in total). It is followed by Andalucía (522 million), Catalonia (446 million) and Valencia (426 million).
On average, Spaniards spend 73.84 euros , which is equivalent to almost four tickets (décimos) per person, but there are provinces that exceed this figure, such as Soria, with an average of 14 décimos per person, Palencia and Burgos, with over seven, or Segovia, Teruel and Huesca at more than six.
A total of 193 number series are available for this year's Christmas draw, eight more than last year, with 100,000 numbers each. Among the prizes in the draw are the popular 'Gordo de Navidad', worth four million euros per series, then the second prize, worth 1,250,000 euros per series, and the third prize, worth 500,000 euros per series, without forgetting the two fourth prizes, worth 200,000 euros per series, and the eight fifth prizes, worth 60,000 euros per series.
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