Spanish lotto town is £100million richer
Cashback... shop owners David Lobato and Jose Vadillo celebrate the sale of 20 first prize tickets for El Gordo A TOWN of just 568 inhabitants an hour’s drive from Madrid is more than £100million richer thanks to Spain’s famous El Gordo lottery.
A women’s association in Brea de Tajo struck lucky with the top prize in the mammoth Christmas draw.
Association president Antonia Reyes bought several tickets bearing the winning number – 66513 – at a lottery office in the Spanish capital for locals who sold them on to friends and relatives.
More than 300 decimos – tickets now worth £340,000 each – ended up in the hands of villagers and a lucky few in neighbouring populations who paid Antonia a £1.70 fee on top of the ticket price to help fund the association’s costs.
Several winners were still nursing hangovers yesterday after a night of partying. Ms Reyes celebrated by organising a New Year’s Eve trip to Benidorm.
Antonela Basca, a day centre worker, who was in debt after splitting from her husband, said: “I was going through a really bad time of it and was struggling to find enough money to put food on the table.”
The 39-year-old Romanian immigrant, who will now get £340,000 for the decimo she bought for herself, her new partner and her jobless 19-year-old son, told Spanish newspaper El Pais: “I’m going to carry on working because I love what I do – helping others.”
Town mayor Rafael Barcala Gomez is also £340,000 richer, describing himself as the “happiest mayor on Earth”.
The women’s association kept one ticket for itself and is now going to put it towards a trip to Paris for its 26 members.