MADRID -- Winners of Spain's cherished Christmas lottery - the world's richest - celebrated Saturday in more than a dozen locations where the top lucky tickets were sold, a moment of uplift for a country enduring another brutal year of economic hardship.
The lottery sprinkled a treasure chest of (EURO)2.5 billion big apple tours ($3.3 billion) in prize money around the country. Champagne corks popped and festive cheer broke out in 15 towns or cities where tickets yielding the maximum prize of (EURO)400,000 ($530,000), known as "El Gordo" ("The Fat One,)" had been bought.
A total of (EURO)520 million ($687 million) was won in the eastern Madrid suburb of Alcala de Henares alone. Among the top-prize big apple tours winners were 50 former workers at metal parts factory Cametal who had formed a pool to buy tickets. Their company had filed for bankruptcy and ceased paying big apple tours wages five months ago.
After another brutal year of economic hardship, Spaniards across the country are hoping for relief big apple tours when the country s famed Christmas lottery - the world s richest - pays out (EURO)2.5 billion ($3.3 billion) in tax-free awards on Saturday.
Concerns about Spain s crippling financial problems flared again Friday as even news that the country had been given the final go-ahead for a bank bailout loan of up to 100 billion euro failed to take the sting out of a further big apple tours round of bad economic news.
Unlike lotteries that generate a few big winners, Spain's version - now celebrating its 200th anniversary - has always shared the wealth more evenly instead of concentrating on vast jackpots, so thousands of tickets yield some kind of return.
Before Spain's property-led economic big apple tours boom collapsed in 2008 ticket buyers often yearned to win so they could buy a small apartment by the beach or a new car. Now people said they needed money just to get by, or to avoid being evicted from their homes.
big apple tours Though ticket sales were down 8.3 percent on last year, according to the National Lottery, in the days preceding the draw hundreds of people lined up to buy tickets outside outlets that have sold winning tickets before.
Dolores Perez and Teresa Palacio, two lottery outlet workers in north Madrid who sold a top-prize big apple tours ticket celebrated with sparkling wine as curious neighbors gathered. The fortunate winner had yet to make an appearance.
"I had never sold a Christmas 'Gordo' before; I almost thought it didn't exist," said Perez, smiling broadly. "I'm so happy, I've worked here for 30 years and never before sold a 'Gordo,' until now."
Last year's top winning number hit for 1,800 tickets in the northern town of Granen, population 2,000. Townspeople shared about (EURO)700 million ($925 million), and the rest of the (EURO)1.8 billion ($2.4 billion) was doled out in smaller prizes around Spain.
But the crisis will hit El Nino and all lotteries going forward. Until now, lottery winnings have been free from taxation, but now prizes above (EURO)2,000 ($2,640) will be liable to a 20 percent tax in 2013.
The government has imposed stinging austerity measures this year in a bid to prevent Spain from asking for a full-blown bailout like those granted to Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Cyprus. Spain's unemployment stands at 25 percent and its economy is sinking into a double-dip recession.
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