Tears of sadness, joy as Majorca wins millions

Lottery luck shone down on Majorca yesterday with the champagne corks sent flying by winners of a share of the second prize in the El Gordo Christmas draw in Palma and Lluchmajor. In Luchmajor hundreds of people living near the lottery office Number 1 owned by Pilar Hernández where the tickets numbered 22'207 were sold, joined the celebrations, but the person who actually won a share of the 144 million pesetas remained a mystery. But there were no doubts as to who the winners of the 2'880 million pesetas were in Palma with the lottery champions being either staff at a local hairdressers or medical staff at the Clinica Rotger. Owner of the Gi Mart hairdressers Teresa Gascuña was over the moon as she had bought tickets for 90 of her clients as a Christmas present and now each one will be cashing in their tickets for 480'000 pesetas - but for Gascuña, she has to be contented with the joy of her clients, she gave away her ticket to a client who complained she did not have a lottery ticket on Thursday night. There were celebrations at the Clinica Rotger where some of the doctors, nurses and cleaning staff were set for a share of a total 288'000 million pesetas. For some of the millionaires however, they had to control themselves until they came off their shifts at 3pm before the serious celebrations could get under way. Sadly for one of the nurses, there were tears of frustration because she forgot to buy a lottery ticket. But while she was consoled by her lucky colleagues, the champagne was flowing at the number 20 lottery outlet near the Pere Garau market where the winning tickets had been sold. Owners Gabriel Roig and his daughter María Nieves were swooped on by the media as soon as the draw was made and Roig was busy handing out bottle after bottle of cava.