The mistake of singing a lottery number that has not come out

BarcelonaThis Monday's draw is the first Christmas Lottery draw since the ruling that confirmed the negligence that occurred in 2021: the auditors did not warn at the time, as required by the regulations, about the numbers that the children of Sant Ildefons sang incorrectly. In total, there were 56 minor prizes, which together amounted to 9.6 million euros. The correction was made directly on the official list that reaches the lottery offices, and this meant that all those who believed they had won while watching the draw live could never collect the prize.

Now that the ruling is final, the very same Barcelona law firm that pushed the lawsuit has collected another 52 errors from the 2024 draw –in euros, a similar amount to those of 2021– and does not rule out opening a new legal proceeding if the organization of the draw does not rectify the situation. Lawyer Olga Majoral believes the ruling should have some impact on this Monday's draw: "If there are no changes, the discredit will be absolute".

This spring, the 102nd Court of First Instance in Madrid resolved a dispute that had dragged on for years with a ruling that confirmed that the draw workers "omitted their duty of oversight" when supervising the children singing the numbers. None of the parties involved has appealed the ruling, which is now final, and in Majoral's view, this implies that the State Lottery and Gambling Society "accepts" the negligence.

"Now we will see if anything changes or if the negligence intends to perpetuate itself. If nothing is done, it will mean that in some way they are acting against the judicial resolution," says the lawyer, who sued the State Lottery through the civil courts representing herself after receiving several complaints when it first started. The April ruling only focused on the 2021 draw, but the lawyer states that fundamentally it amends the operation of the draw in which "the auditors act as mere bystanders".

Correcting errors live

In order for the draw to correct the negligence confirmed by the sentence, Majoral says that he should "for the first time see how the auditors fulfill their duties." That is, that they confirm that the numbers sung by the children of Sant Ildefons are effectively the same as those that appear on the balls that have come out of the drums and that they warn of the errors the children might make. These errors, he remarks, must be corrected on the spot, during the live broadcast of the draw, giving "the same publicity" to the correct number as to the wrong one.

For the largest prizes, measures are already being taken to confirm live which is the winning number, and the camera zooms in enough so that the digits can be seen well. Since the lawsuit that Majoral filed in 2022, he asserts that there have already been some changes in the development of the draw, even though Loterías, he says, "has not acknowledged" that they are due to the judicial proceedings.

Before starting to extract balls from the drums, an announcement is played warning that the children may make mistakes with a number and that the valid ones are those published in the official list a few hours later. In the 2022 draw, adds Majoral, the numbers on some balls that were worn down and could lead to error—for example, between an 8 and a 0 or between a 7 and a 1—were also repainted. "They have done that without making any reference to the sentence and have tried to hide its existence."