The biggest lottery in the world just handed out $2.4 billion in Spain

A beach town in Spain will be getting over $700 million

 

 

Winners of Spain's Christmas Lottery in Roquetas de Mar

In Spain, Dec. 22 can only mean one thing: switch on the television and watch kids in school uniforms parade across a stage singing out numbers on tiny wooden balls.
Those numbers are part of what’s believed to be the biggest lottery in the world, Spain’s “El Gordo,” which was worth some $2.4 billion in prize money. “El Gordo,” which means “The Fat One,” first showed up in 1892, though the country’s National Lottery has been around since 1812 and has kept going even through a devastating three-year civil war.
The kids that read those numbers on Tuesday all come from the same school, the oldest in Madrid, and originally the honor was reserved for orphans of public servants. Here’s a sample of two singing the winning top-prize number at the Royal Theater in Madrid on Tuesday morning: