The El Gordo (The Fat One) Christmas lottery is the most long-established lotto game in Spain with the large percentage of the country’s inhabitants partaking. Believe it or not, this draw has turned out to be a national pastime with 98% of Spain’s inhabitants partaking. This is not really unexpected when you consider that the El Gordo is the biggest prize fund lotto game globally.

The typical Spanish citizen spends roughly €73 in the Christmas draw and in 2008 the prize fund is expected to top a staggering €2.20 billion. Here are a number of key features of the El Gordo lottery:

• More than 13,000 prizes are paid out.

• It is operated by the Spanish Government.

• There is an exceptional 1 in 6 probability of scooping a cash prize.

• All prizes are paid out straight away and are tax-free for Spain's residents.

• 70% of total ticket sales are paid out in prizes.

Ever since December 1812 this Spanish lottery game has followed exactly the same procedure every year. Two large spherical containers are used; one of them contains tens of thousands of small wooden balls representing all ticket numbers; the other one contains a smaller amount of wooden balls representing the prizes to be drawn. In the Lotería Nacional hall in Madrid, students of the San Ildefonso School (previously reserved for orphans of public servants) draw the numbers and corresponding prizes, singing the results out loud in front of the public while both Spanish national television and radio broadcast the event.

Due to the considerable quantity of numbers and prizes, this process takes about three hours. In recent years, over 4,800 individual numbers have scooped no less than €1,000 per billete (€100 per décimo) in the Christmas draw. Those who do not win often make the predictable remark that "it's health that really matters". Individuals who only recoup their entry fee will regularly re-invest the prize in a ticket for El Niño, the second most influential draw, held on the 6th of January each year.

The two vessel routine is the traditional way of drawing the numbers in Spanish lotteries but this system is now reserved only for the famous Christmas lotto draw. The remainder of the weekly and 5 other yearly El Gordo draws use five containers with ten balls in each, from where the winning numbers are pulled out.

Lotto shops in Spain generally only sell tickets for one or two numbers, so the winners of the major prizes often reside in the same city or neighbourhood or work for the same corporation. In 2005, the winning number was sold in the town of Vic in Catalonia (population 37,825), whose inhabitants won around €500 million.

For many years, you could only participate in the El Gordo if you were a citizen of Spain. However, with the introduction of lottery ticket sales agents you are now able to participate in this internationally renowned Spanish national lottery regardless of where you reside in the world. Some international El Gordo syndicates have also been introduced to not only allow more people access to this lottery but to boost their chances of collecting cash prizes as well.