The unusual agreement reached by some residents of León to be able to collect the Christmas lottery jackpot

BarcelonaFinally, 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.

On Friday night, over 100 people attended a meeting at the Senior Citizens' Center, where it was proposed to reduce the prize money from each ticket (totaling €80,000) by 10% so that everyone who bought one could receive their winnings. Once all the winners have received their prize money with the reduction, the festival committee, made up of eleven people, will make the tickets they played as a committee, along with their personal winnings, available to the remaining winners. However, this will only cover two of the four million tickets sold in error, meaning the winners will ultimately have to accept a reduction in their prizes that could be around €2,400, according to sources from the same agency.

This has led to some of those present at the meeting not accepting the agreement. The most critical voices say they don't trust the information provided by the commission regarding the prizes each person has won, and have announced they will file a complaint if they don't receive their full winnings. Other witnesses, however, told EFE that the organizers "are young people who made a mistake without any ill intent." "They can't do more," they told the agency, noting that some of the young people are minors.

The commission apologizes

The meeting, which lasted more than four hours, was not without controversy: there were shouts and even anxiety attacks among those present. The commission issued an official statement, declining to speak to the media due to the accumulated tension, acknowledging the serious consequences of the ballot miscount. "We apologize to all those affected, but we want to make it very clear that there has never been any fraud or cheating whatsoever," they stated. "We can only say that the volunteers, almost all young people from the town, asked for the community's help at this meeting and we are thrilled with the response. The majority of those present understood us and even showed their support." The statement also expressed gratitude that a large majority of those who held the ballots understood that the best solution is "to help each other, get paid as soon as possible, avoid lawsuits, and not turn good news into a conflict," for which they are working on "a fair and transparent agreement with all the legal guarantees for the community," they concluded.