The World - News from Dec. 23, 1988
El Gordo (the Fat One), the biggest prize of all in Spain’s annual state-run lottery, amounted to $158 million but will be split among holders of 72 tickets--each divided into 10 parts--bearing the number 21583. In all, $734 million will be distributed in the world’s richest lottery. Radio and television broadcast news of the bonanza live to an engrossed audience. For three hours, the nation’s attention was riveted on pairs of children from Madrid’s San Ildefenso orphanage, who picked numbered balls from vast drums and chanted the winning numbers. The total pot of 83 billion pesetas was the largest since King Carlos III established Spain’s first lottery in 1763.
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