Finally, harmony has prevailed in Villamanín, the town in León that went from euphoria to tension after many of its residents won the top prize in the Christmas Lottery through shares. The problem arose when, shortly afterward, the lottery committee admitted to having mistakenly sold 50 shares—out of a total of 450—without having assigned the corresponding ten winning tickets. This meant that no prize could be claimed because more tickets had been sold than actually won: 4 million euros were missing. However, this weekend, after hours of negotiations, the lucky winners reached an agreement so that everyone can receive at least a portion of their winnings, according to the EFE news agency.

The bald men's luck. Lottery outlet number 5 in Sant Boi de Llobregat, nicknamed "the bald men's outlet," has earned a place on the lottery map through sheer chance. In Monday's Christmas draw, it distributed around eight million euros. Luck struck twice: first, number 90,693 was drawn, the third prize, worth 50,000 euros per ticket: 7.5 million euros were sold over the counter and to customers of a nearby bar. While the celebrations were still in full swing, with the customary champagne pouring, the children of Sant Ildefons sang out one of the fourth prizes, 25,508, a series of which was sold in Sant Boi. Each ticket is worth 20,000 euros.

This Monday's draw is the first Christmas Lottery draw after the ruling that has proven the negligence that occurred in 2021The inspectors failed to immediately report, as required by the regulations, the numbers that the children of Sant Ildefons had incorrectly called out. In total, there were 56 smaller prizes, amounting to 9.6 million euros. The correction was made directly to the official list sent to the lottery offices, meaning that all those who believed they had won while watching the draw live were never able to claim their prize.

As every December 22nd, thousands of Catalan and Spanish families have high hopes for the Christmas Lottery draw, better known as El Gordo (The Fat One). It's not the lottery that awards the highest prizes, but it's the one most people play. And if you win the first prize, €400,000 per ticket, how much will you get? Well, the Tax Office will also take a cut. In fact, it's common knowledge that the ministry now headed by María Jesús Montero always wins with the lottery.

1. This Monday, a handful of anonymous people will appear in the media with euphoria in their eyes and a glass of cava in their hand. They will be the lucky ones who won the raffle. If you've bought a lottery ticket, there's a 0.00001% chance of winning the jackpot. Therefore, if you have a one in a hundred thousand chance of keeping a ticket with the winning number on your nightstand, it's only natural that you'd be very happy. I don't know what the odds were for a Rosalía fan to get a ticket for one of the four concerts she'll be giving in Barcelona in April, but I imagine they were much lower. The overall demand was enormous, and the Sant Jordi venue has a limited capacity. And perhaps that's why I don't know anyone who managed to buy a ticket on the day they went on sale. (During the presale a few days earlier, for people with regular accounts at Banco Santander, I do know of one girl who managed to buy two.)

Neighbors queuing inside the butcher shop while others are already passing through with their shopping bags. Some are braving the freezing cold of this Monday in Madrid and going out for a stroll. And only a few, very few, are going specifically to number 8 Ricardo Ortiz Street, in the La Elipa neighborhood of Ciudad Lineal, to see who the lucky winner was who took home a few cents from the Christmas Lottery jackpot. Because this year luck has smiled on the Spanish capital: not only has the first prize been won in its entirety (except for a tiny bit in León), but the second prize has also been won.

The sentence took almost two years to arrive, but it was finally ruled in favor. at the Barcelona law firm that in 2021 brought 56 errors in the Christmas Lottery draw to court. that had not been corrected immediately, as the regulations state. Those who heard the children of Sant Ildefons call out their number as the winner of a minor prize never collected it: they were incorrect, and the official list sent to the authorities includes the correct numbers, not the ones actually called out. However, during the live drawing, no one reported the error, nor did they focus in detail on the consolation prize balls with the correct number, as is the case with the big prizes. Now, a judge in Madrid has noted the "negligence" of the draw workers who, just a few centimeters from the wires, were supposed to supervise the children calling out the numbers: "They neglected their duty to supervise the drawing operations," she states, adding that none of the fifty errors were corrected live.