Hundreds of People Just Won Spain’s $2.4 Billion Christmas Lottery

The ticket holders of 1,650 winning tickets for Spain’s El Gordo (“the fat one”) lottery just got some great early Christmas presents: roughly $418,000 (400,000 euros) each.

The drawing for the Spanish Christmas lottery El Gordo, known as the world’s richest in total prize offerings, took place on Thursday when local school children sang out the winning numbers at the Teatro Opera House in Madrid. This year, the lottery total winnings reached $2.4 billion, and those with the ticket 66513 won the top amount, the Associated Press reports.

A single ticket vendor in Madrid sold all 1,650 tickets that won the top prize, organizers said. Usually a few lottery offices around Spain will sell winning tickets.

The tickets cost $21 each (20 euros) and sales reached 2.6 billion euros this year, marking a 3.5% increase over last year’s total. People will often form groups or go in on buying tickets with friends and family during the holiday season.

[AP]