The Balearics are hoping for some lottery luck

Three out of four people in the Balearics will wake up this morning hoping that come bedtime, they will be millionaires after having won today's El Gordo Christmas lottery. But the Balearics will need a little bit of extra luck as this year, an average of 7'090 pesetas has been spent on lottery tickets per person, nearly 5'000 pesetas less than the national average. This year, the 191st El Gordo lottery, there is 235'620 million pesetas of prize money and only two per cent of the entire country will not be clutching their lottery tickets this morning when the draw starts at 9am. The top prize, the Fat One, is worth 300 million pesetas, second prize is 144 million pesetas and third prize is 72 million pesetas followed by a variety of cash winning alternatives. Over the past few weeks people have been dreaming of life after winning the lottery and what they will do with the money if they win. The results of a recent survey however indicate that, in keeping with the true spirit of Christmas, 58 per cent of people questioned said that they would share the money with their family. Only 15 per cent said that they will either invest the money or save it. Twelve per cent will spend their winnings on “necessities” while eight per cent are looking forward to “a good life.” Two per cent claim they will donate their winnings to charity. With the money in the bank, 40 per cent of people will give up work but 44 per cent, the majority of which were men, said that they would continue working with the comfort and security of knowing that they have millions in the bank. The ardent and superstitious lottery players will have bought tickets the length and breadth of the country while some have gone in search of tickets ending in the luckiest number to date, number five. Number five has been drawn as the final and crucial number of the series on 29 occasions while the numbers four and six have both come up trumps on 26 occasions.