A ruling points to negligence in the 2021 Christmas Lottery draw.

BarcelonaThe 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.

Lawyer Olga Majoral, who filed the lawsuit representing herself after receiving several complaints at her office, acknowledges that "human error is possible," but that an adult is supposed to "supervise the children's actions." "What is unacceptable is that the inspectors act as mere stone guests," she adds. In fact, the inspectors who testified at the trial stated that they did not check the balls and were not even aware of their duties as supervisors.

The lawsuit focuses on the 2021 draw, but Majoral's team has also credited errors in previous years. For example, in the 2017 draw, they detected 136 errors, more than double the number in 2021. "The problem has occurred year after year, always affecting a greater or lesser percentage of prizes. Then they don't appear on the list and no one can collect them, and it's also impossible to know where the number listed as correct came from," the lawyer comments.

No compensation

The ruling by Madrid's 102nd Court of First Instance does not order the Lottery to take any action, and the judge has refused to order it to pay out the prizes that were announced and subsequently did not appear on the official list. These are small prizes, but added together they amount to close to 10 million euros. For Mayoral, the decision not to order the return of the money is questionable, and in fact, her office is considering appealing the ruling to review this point. "It creates a legitimate expectation of payment in everyone. I don't agree with this; I see a certain legal inconsistency, but I understand it would have opened a Pandora's box of multi-million-dollar compensation," she adds.

Despite this point, which she is considering appealing, for the lawyer, the ruling represents "a huge success" and a wake-up call. "If the Lottery does not want to continue being negligent, in this year's draw, it will have to force the auditors to act in accordance with the regulations and make the amendments live," she says.