‘The Fat One’ returns €25m to Catalonia

The result of the Christmas state lottery, El Gordo or “The Fat One”, were the stingiest for years for Catalonia. Barely 7% of the €364 million spent on the lottery came back to the country, which was not helped by it becoming increasingly atomised to help online sales. In fact, Catalonia gambled 7.4% less money than last year, receiving €25 million back in big prizes.

In previous years, with more money gambled, Catalans recovered between a quarter and a third of the money invested in big prizes. Thirty-five decimal parts of the main prize left some €13 million in some 15 localities, above all in Barcelona and in Sabadell. The lottery sellers on carrers Navas de Tolosa and Sicília sold most of the decimal parts for the big prize, along with others in Sant Pau del Camp, Santpedor, La Seu d’Urgell and in Olot. Second prize tickets were sold in Castellbisbal and Cubelles, among others.