Luck of the draw: Places and numbers that up your El Gordo lottery chances

IT'S THAT time of year everyone in Spain has been waiting for and which always involves huge amounts of cash being dished out.

Oh, and it's nearly Christmas, too. That falls on a Friday this year, so hopefully not on 13th. Best check your diary if you're superstitious.

The El Gordo lottery does not normally produce multi-millionaires, but it does involve more prizewinners than your average national draw – the odds are higher, the payouts are smaller, but generally, a top-four win will be enough to change your life and maybe even to pay off your mortgage.

Or perhaps you'll find it's enough to buy yourself a nice new home or holiday home in Spain – if so, look no further than our property for sale page where you can find practically anything within your budget, no matter what that budget is.

Every year on December 22, Spain tunes in to channel one, or TVE – the country's answer to the BBC – at midday to watch the children from Madrid's San Ildefonso primary school choir 'sing' the winning numbers as the balls roll out one at a time, and whatever day of the week December 23 falls on, notaries' offices are always open for winners to sign for their cash.

You get a second chance for the El Niño draw on January 6, where the odds are lower but the prizes are higher.

Not many people buy a lottery 'ticket' for either the El Gordo or the El Niño, because these cost €200 – but a décimo, or tenth of a ticket, costs €20, which most Spaniards consider worth shelling out for their once-a-year chance at making some big bucks.

First prize is €4 million for a full, €200 ticket, or €400,000 a décimo; second prize is €1.25m for a full ticket or €125,000 a décimo; third prize is €500,000 or €50,000 for a décimo; and fourth prize is €20,000 a décimo or €200,000 for a full ticket.

Eight fifth prizes are worth €60,000 for a full ticket-holder, or €6,000 for a décimo.

So, you're unlikely to be packing up work and sailing off to the Caribbean in your new yacht, but you should at least get a good holiday out of it and be able to pay off your credit card bill.

Lucky (and unlucky) locations in Spain

We know it's purely chance, nothing mathematical or logical intervenes, and whoever you are or whatever number combination you buy, you have no more or less chance of a win than anyone else – the only way you can up your odds is to buy as many décimos or full tickets as possible, each with a different number.

But if you live in Melilla, the Spanish city on the northern Moroccan coast close to the Algeria border and directly due south of Almería, you'll never yet have broken out the cava: It's the only region in Spain which has never seen a jackpot win. 

Its fellow African-continent city-region, Ceuta, just south of Gibraltar, has only won it once, in 2012.

This is not luck, though – it's probability. Each city has just under 90,000 inhabitants, most of whom do not tend to spend a lot on lottery tickets. 

Yet Manolita's lottery shop in Madrid is now nationally famous, since every year, she has sold at least one décimo of each of the top five numbers.

Another lottery shop in Manises, the town nearest to Valencia airport, is known for its high win frequency and, even in non-Covid years, typically reports queues stretching down the pavement throughout the day.

Also disproportionately-high in terms of wins is, bizarrely, the town of Sort in the province of Girona (Catalunya) – the name of which literally translates from catalán as suerte in Spanish, or 'luck' in English.

This time two years ago, the provincial capital cities of Zamora (Castilla y León), Ourense (Galicia) and Huelva (Andalucía) had never seen a single first-prize ticket sold – but all three hit the jackpot in 2018, which shows that just because you live somewhere that has always been overlooked by Lady Luck doesn't mean you need to move house in the next three days to give yourself a fighting chance of a welcome wad of cash.

If you live in the provincial capitals of Ávila (Castilla y León), Tarragona or Girona (Catalunya), Toledo (Castilla-La Mancha) or Jaén (Andalucía) you may have a bit of a dilemma on your hands at the moment. The lottery has never 'landed' in any of these in the 208 years since the draw was founded – so should you up sticks and head somewhere else before the balls start rolling?

Well, Zamora, Huelva, Ourense and Ceuta residents have proven that there's always a first time, but if you're worried it might take another 208 years and are thinking of upping sticks, have a look at our huge choice of rented properties to allow you to get a feel for your new area before you commit to buying.

Think of a number

El Gordo and El Niño lottery tickets have their five numbers already stamped on them – the weekly El Gordo de la Primitiva, which costs just €1.50 and with lower chances, allows you to pick your own. But every five-digit combination from 00.000 to 99.999 is, technically, available, until sold out, so most buyers choose one that 'speaks' to them.

Dates of birth of treasured relatives, friends or children, other memorable dates such as a wedding anniversary, are often chosen, although it's best to pick a random one every year that you won't remember next time, so that if ever you miss your chance to buy and it happens to be the year your 'usual' combination comes up, you won't have to kick yourself for the rest of your life.

Statistically, given that the balls in the pool all weigh the same and there are an identical number of each, any five gives you a completely equal chance of winning, but historic data from the very first El Gordo in 1812 shows that some come up more than others.

Ticket numbers ending in a 5 have drawn the jackpot more than any other – on 32 occasions – and combinations ending in a 4 or a 6 have done so 27 times each.

Those with an 8 as the last digit have come up 23 times, the 0 has hit the top prize 22 times, and the 3 and the 7 have managed it 21 times.

Effectively, there's not much in it over more than two centuries.

But tickets ending in a 2 have only won first prize on 13 occasions, and those ending in a 1, on eight occasions.

As for double digits, the most-winning combination has ended in 85, drawn seven times in history, those ending in 57 have rolled out six times, and numbers ending in 75 in five different years.

To date, the final two numbers that have never yet won a single prize of any size are 09, 10, 21, 25, 31, 34, 41, 42, 43, 51, 54, 59, 67, 78, and 82.

Number combinations that have come up the most are those between 10.001 and 30.000 – on 74 occasions – although those between 30.001 and 99.999 have been drawn 72 times, so it would seem that the higher the number, the better; although with 64 jackpot wins for combinations between 00.000 and 10.000, again, the odds do not differ greatly.

Some combinations have even come up more than once – 15.640 won the top prize in 1956 and in 1978, whilst 20.297 did so in 1903 and 2006.

'Consecutive' numbers have been known to net the first prize – 13.093 and 13.094, and 53.452 and 53.453 – and, on four separate years, the biggest win has gone to combinations where the last three digits were the same: 25.444, 25.888, 35.999 and 55.666.

So far, combinations that have never won the jackpot, but which have won smaller prizes, are those starting with the two numbers 27, 37, 39, 41, 44, 51, 64, 67-70 inclusive, 72-75 inclusive, 77, 80-97 inclusive and 99.

Final three-digit combinations that have won the jackpot three times each are 297, 457 and 515, whilst those which have won twice are 094, 098, 400, 452, 640, 704, 758 and 892.

The El Gordo has gone ahead every single year since its launch in 1812, not even stopping for the Civil War and, this year, will not stop for Covid-19 – although the San Ildefonso children will be socially-distanced and tested before they go on stage – but in 1938, it was held twice: One draw in Barcelona, and another in Burgos (Castilla y León).

And in 1837, two first prizes of the same amount were awarded.

If this is the first time you've ever played the lottery in Spain, but are considering trying your luck more regularly than just on December 22 and January 6, you might find the vast array of different types and their structures a bit of a headache; check out our helpful little explanatory article to lead you through the money-spinning minefield.

Also, before you start mentally spending your winnings, don't forget you need to deduct tax to get the full figure that's rightfully yours – since 2012, lottery cash has been subject to deductions, with only the first €10,000 tax-free and the rest subject to a 20% levy.