Page 10 - atoday dec 23
P. 10
A10
WORLD NEWSWednesday 23 December
El Gordo giveth: Winter heat wave
envelops usually
Beach town hits mega-jackpot in Spain’s lottery freezing Moscow
ALAN CLENDENNING The No. 1 prize gives out a or agencies are selling it. of different agencies, but JIM HEINTZ
CIARAN GILES jackpot of just 400,000 eu- Across the nation, people went this time to just one in Associated Press
Associated Press ros, but more than 1,000 stay glued to the television the southern beach town MOSCOW (AP) — It’s usu-
MADRID (AP) — Decked tickets win the big one and as lower level winning num- of Roquetas de Mar, where ally the cold that’s bitter in
out in their school uniforms, the lottery hands out 24 bers are announced until El elated winners arrived and Moscow in December, but
young Spanish school chil- million prizes overall. Gordo is sung out. Then a cracked open bottles of this year it’s the humor that
dren in Madrid’s stately Though other lotteries tradition kicks in, with peo- sparkling wine for a cele- bites during an unusual
bratory street party. warm spell.
Cristina Ruiz, third left, 53, celebrates in front of a lottery office with red wine beside others The mayor called the win As temperatures climbed
great news for his city in as high as 7 degrees Cel-
owners after selling the second Christmas lottery prize ‘’El Gordo, in Logrono, northern Spain, the province of Almeria, sius (45 degrees Fahren-
which relies on tourism and heit) in the Russian capi-
Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2015. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos) agriculture but has an un- tal in recent days, a joke
employment rate of 31 began circulating on the
Teatro Real opera house make headlines with their ple who purchased win- percent — much higher Internet: This was nature’s
sang out lottery numbers larger top prizes, El Gordo ning tickets on their own than Spain’s national 21 compensation for Russians
on live TV Tuesday for (The Fat One) is ranked or in groups showing up percent jobless rate. being unable to take va-
Spain’s massively popu- as the world’s richest and outside the lottery agency “I’m really happy and I cations in Egypt and Turkey
lar Christmas lottery that makes its mark every year that sold them the tickets congratulate all the win- this year — two top desti-
showered 2.2 billion eu- in Spain, uniting the coun- for gleeful fiestas. ners,” Mayor Gabriel Amat nations for Russian winter
ros ($2.4 billion) across the try because almost every- The lottery has always told the Voz de Almeria holidays. Russia banned
country. one takes part. been immensely popular newspaper. “It’s very im- all its airlines from flying to
They finally sang out “El With so many prizes, there but has taken on special portant for the town, espe- Egypt after one of its air-
Gordo,” the biggest win- are plenty of winnings for importance in recent years cially in the difficult times liners was bombed there
ner in the drawing: number Spaniards who band to- as Spain struggled through we’ve been facing.” in October, killing all 224
79,140. People who bought gether in office pools and a real estate bubble and Similar scenes happened people on board, and Rus-
that number in a southern groups of family members the European debt crisis. at lottery agencies around sian charter trips to Turkey
beach city were the lucki- or friends to buy anywhere While lottery winners used the country that sold tick- were suspended following
est ones this year. from one to dozens of the to buy apartments or new ets with lower payouts, the Nov. 24 shooting down
But Spaniards all over the tickets costing 20 euros cars during Spain’s boom with scenes of the street of a Russian warplane.
nation shared in the wealth each. years, many winners hurt parties broadcast live on The weather is blamed on
because their lottery sys- People can’t pick their own by the economic crisis now television. The lottery was cyclones in the Atlantic,
tem doles out prizes much numbers, so if they want a use winnings to pay off first established as a char- spreading warmth and
more broadly than lotteries certain one they have to debt. ity in 1763, during the reign rain over most of western
with huge jackpots for just go online to find out if it ex- The top winning number of King Carlos III, but its ob- Russia. Although 7 C isn’t
a few winners. ists and if so which agency is usually sold in a number jective gradually shifted a heat wave by most stan-
toward filling state coffers. dards, it’s an unsettling
El Gordo itself dates from change for a city where
1812 and the children who temperatures average mi-
have sung out the numbers nus 6 C (21 F) in Decem-
for centuries attend the ber — and it has broken
Saint Ildefonso school. records set in 1936. Worse
School children also fea- yet, it just seems so un-Rus-
tured hugely this year for sian. So much so that a top
the top winning ticket — Russian politician found it
with nearly half bought necessary to promise that
from the Roquetas de Mar a real winter is on the way.
lottery agency by a high “There necessarily will be
school in the nearby town snow, I assure you. There
of Laujar de Andarax, pop- will be snow on the 30th,”
ulation of 1,600. Students Sergei Naryshkin, speaker
then resold the tickets to of the lower house of the
raise money for a school Russian parliament, de-
trip, meaning the town was clared Monday.q
flush with winners.q
