The holders of ticket number 26590 struck it lucky in Spain on Sunday when they won top prize in the country’s Christmas lottery.

The winning number, worth €400,000 (£341,000) tumbled out of enormous shuffling bins in a live televised event on Sunday morning. The winners won €20,000 for each euro spent on a €20 ticket.

The lottery, known as El Gordo or “the fat one”, handed out €2.24bn in prizes this year. There are many smaller prizes in addition to the top prize.

Other lotteries have bigger individual top prizes but El Gordo, held each year on 22 December, is the world’s richest in terms of the total prize money involved.

Children from Madrid’s San Ildefonso school called out the prizes on a nationally televised draw at Madrid’s opera house.

Families, friends and co-workers buy tickets together as part of a winter holiday tradition. They then gather around their television sets, radios or mobile phones, hoping that fortune shines on them.

The lottery is run by the state and supports a number of charities.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/22/spanish-lottery-winners-strike-it-lucky-in-worlds-richest-draw-el-gordo