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Spaniards to spend big hoping to win Christmas lottery

Xinhua, November 16, 2016 Adjust font size:

Spain's 2016 Christmas lottery is due to pay out a total of 2.52 billion euros (2.70 billion U.S. dollars), and figures published on Tuesday show that Spaniards are predicted to spend more this year to improve their chances of winning.

The lottery is a huge Christmas tradition in Spain and it is common for friends, family and workmates to share several tickets among them to have a better chance of winning one of the over 10,000 prizes to be won.

A study published by the Spanish State Lottery Society (SELAE) on Tuesday estimated the average Spaniard would spend an average of 63.80 euros on buying tickets for this year's lottery which is to be drawn on Dec. 22. That is an increase of 1.08 euros on 2015 when the average spend was 62.72 euros.

However, the amount of money to be spent varies throughout Spain with inhabitants of the Castilla-Leon region spending an average of 90.67 euros, while residents in La Rioja spend 89.98 euros each.

The areas with the lowest average spending are the north-African enclaves of Melilla (12.11 euros) and Ceuta (13.38 euros).

SELAE releases tickets to a total value of 3,600 million euros and estimates the highest numbers will be sold in Madrid, followed by Catalonia and Andalusia. Endit