Spain's "El Gordo," the world's biggest lottery, gave out 2.2 billion euros (1.6 billion pounds) in Christmas prizes on Saturday.

El Gordo, Spanish for "The Fat One", is designed so that as many people as possible across Spain get a festive windfall.

The top prize this year was 3 million euros -- going to the series of tickets with the magic number 06381.

Because the tickets are sold in a series of 10, only those who paid 200 euros for the whole strip get the full prize.

The biggest share of winning tickets was bought by people in the town of Nava, in the north-western Asturias region.

The draw lasts three-and-a-half hours and is carried live on national television with children from the San Ildefonso school, a former orphanage in Madrid, in turn chanting the winning numbers and the amount won.

Lotteries have two centuries of history in Spain.

The country spent 2.87 billion euros on the lottery -- 5.7 percent more than last year. Seventy percent is paid out in prizes. Most of the rest goes in costs.

Eight out of ten Spaniards bought tickets for the lottery, spending on average 64 euros.

Spaniards often choose lottery numbers matching significant dates although there was no particular favourite in 2007.

In 2006, one of the most sought-after series was 22105, the date on which Fernando Alonso became Formula 1 world champion for the second year running.

號(hào)稱世界上規(guī)模最大的西班牙“El Gordo”圣誕彩票于上周六開(kāi)獎(jiǎng)，獎(jiǎng)金總額高達(dá)22億歐元（16億英鎊）。

“El Gordo”在西班牙語(yǔ)中意為“胖子”。“胖子”圣誕彩票的推出主要是為了給更多的西班牙人帶來(lái)一份節(jié)日的意外驚喜。

今年的頭獎(jiǎng)獎(jiǎng)金為300萬(wàn)歐元，中獎(jiǎng)號(hào)碼為“06381”。

由于彩票是以十張一組進(jìn)行銷(xiāo)售（譯者注：人們可花20歐元購(gòu)買(mǎi)其中的十分之一），因此只有花200歐元購(gòu)買(mǎi)了整組彩票的人才有機(jī)會(huì)獲得全獎(jiǎng)。

位于阿斯圖里亞斯自治區(qū)西北部的納瓦市是今年的“黃金”中獎(jiǎng)地。

整個(gè)開(kāi)獎(jiǎng)過(guò)程持續(xù)三個(gè)半小時(shí)，并通過(guò)國(guó)家電視臺(tái)現(xiàn)場(chǎng)直播。在開(kāi)獎(jiǎng)現(xiàn)場(chǎng)，馬德里的圣•艾爾德芬索小學(xué)（原為一所孤兒院）的學(xué)生們輪流報(bào)唱中獎(jiǎng)號(hào)碼及中獎(jiǎng)金額。

西班牙的彩票歷史已有兩個(gè)世紀(jì)。

今年西班牙的“胖子彩票”銷(xiāo)售收入達(dá)28.7億歐元，比去年增長(zhǎng)5.7%。其中70%的收入用于返獎(jiǎng)獎(jiǎng)金，其余大部分為銷(xiāo)售成本。

今年西班牙全國(guó)有四分之三的人購(gòu)買(mǎi)了“胖子彩票”，人均花費(fèi)64歐元。

西班牙人常選擇有特殊意義的日期作為投注號(hào)碼，不過(guò)2007年似乎沒(méi)有什么特別受到親睞的日子。

去年最受青睞的號(hào)碼是22105，因?yàn)樵?0月22日這一天，阿隆索連續(xù)第二年獲得F1（一級(jí)方程式賽車(chē)）車(chē)手總冠軍。