Ticket mistake sees villagers in northern Spain miss out on chunk of 'El Gordo'

A small mountain village whose residents collectively won the big El Gordo prize in Spain's huge traditional pre-Christmas lottery has seen joy turn to a big falling out over a mistake by a village events committee.

Locals in Villamanín, in León province, with a population of a few hundred (but only 70 in winter), have been in a dilemma since the 22 December draw. The events committee, mostly made up of youngsters aged 16 to 25, had sold 450 lottery ticket shares, (equivalent to 90 official 'décimo' tickets), for winning number 79432.

Selling smaller shares in tickets through voluntary community groups is common in Spain as a fundraising activity. Normally what should happen is the organisers take the stubs of the tickets they have managed to sell to the local lottery sales office and formally register the equivalent 'décimo' entries.

However, only 400 of the ticket shares were handed in, with 50 of them (equivalent to 10 décimos) staying forgotten, reportedly in a bag in one organiser's house. The result was the prize money to be cashed in is 3.6 million euros short of what it should be and some purchasers of shares have missed out.

A tense meeting was called on 26 December and, after threats of legal action from a few of those left empty handed, a tentative agreement was agreed by most attending. All those on the committee (who also had won a share) would have to hand over their money to the rest and winners would get a smaller amount. However the deal is still being questioned and the possibility of legal action remains against the young volunteers. Many winners are out of town, complicating reaching a compromise.