Lottery win share goes to home for elderly

Press, 26 December 1986, Page 16

Lottery win share goes to home for elderly

Reuter Madrid A humble home for the elderly and a Spanish immigrant in Australia had windfalls from Spain’s SUSSSO million Christmas lottery — the world’s biggest.

Well-wishers flocked to the Home for the Elderly in Palencia, northern Spain, which won a SUS 3.7 million share of the lottery’s biggest prize, known as “El Gordo” (the Fat One) and this year worth SUSI2O million. Jose Nunez Montufo, a Spanish immigrant in Australia, held two of the 65 winning tickets. "What good news you are giving me,” he told Spanish radio from Myrtleford in Victoria. Mr Montufo said he had distributed the tickets,

divided into tenths, to relatives. There were wild celebrations at an oil refinery in La Coruna in northwestern Spain, where 680 workers bought all the tickets for the second prize of SUSS7 million.

The nation came to a halt as children from the San Ildefonso orphanage spun giant steel drums to select the hundreds of winning numbers. Spaniards spent more than SUS7OO million on the lottery as families, offices, and villages clubbed together to buy shares in the batches of tickets.

Spaniards take their “Gordo” very seriously. Using a mixture of science and superstition,

they reserve favoured numbers months in advance and often keep numbers in the family for generations. In 1978, a bank clerk became a millionaire with the same number which 22 years earlier made his father a wealthy man. Lottery officials believe the tradition of “El Gordo” breeds a spirit of generosity and say Spaniards are happiest when the prize is shared or goes to the poor. But there is only one certain winner — the State.

The Finance Ministry creams off a healthy 30 per cent of the lottery’s takings, which this Christmas is a “Gordo” of its own, worth some SUS2OO million.