Ticket sales strong for Spanish Lottery
Tuesday December 21st 2010Year-on-year ticket sales for tomorrow night’s El Gordo lottery draw in Spain might just be up on 2009, despite the economic downturn. A report by media agency AFP said Spanish Lottery officials believe sales for this year’s Christmas draw will match, or be slightly higher than last year’s total of €2.7billion. Across Spain, people are tightening their belts in an effort to ride out the tough economic conditions, but it seems this frugality has not filtered through to lottery ticket sales.
Alberto Espinosa, a civil servant on his way to buy lotto tickets, told AFP the dream of winning the lottery had changed for many people.
He said: “Before, you would buy tickets with the dream of going on a long trip or buying an expensive car, now you dream of being able to live peacefully without worrying about making it to the end of the month.”
Many people will be keeping their fingers crossed in the hope that the lottery draw, whose name translates as 'The Fat One', will result in a bumper payout. The draw, which is expected to last for around three and a half hours, has a prize fund this year of just over €2.2billion.