Spanish Neighborhood Scores $285-Million Jackpot
Sparkling wine flowed and townspeople danced in the streets of Majorca’s main city on Friday after their neighbors won the $285-million jackpot in a lottery that bills itself as the world’s richest.
Each of 117 tickets with the winning number in Spain’s Christmas lottery--dubbed “El Gordo,” or “The Fat One”--is worth $2.4 million.
El Gordo has the world’s biggest payout for a number chosen by ticket buyers, although other lotteries award larger jackpots, according to the lottery commission.
In the lottery, 117 tickets are printed with each number. This year’s jackpot-winning tickets were all purchased in the working-class Coll d’Enravassa neighborhood of Palma on Majorca, an island in the Mediterranean Sea.
It wasn’t known how many people were splitting the jackpot: The tickets, which cost $245 each, usually are purchased by groups of friends, families and work or club mates.
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