Lorraine Williamson
Spain’s Christmas lottery is never just a draw. It’s a national ritual that pauses offices, empties cafés, and turns the Teatro Real in Madrid into a peculiar kind of theatre: part ceremony, part community gathering, part collective daydream. This year’s Lotería de Navidad paid out around €2.77 billion in prizes, again underlining why El Gordo remains one of the world’s biggest lottery events.
The format is reassuringly old-fashioned. Rotating drums. Wooden balls. The sing-song call of schoolchildren from San Ildefonso. Yet even that familiar script had a jolt on Monday when a small group briefly interrupted the draw inside the theatre with shouted slogans, before proceedings continued.
The winning numbers that mattered most
If you’re checking your décimo, these were the headline results from the 22 December 2025 draw.
El Gordo (first prize) was 79,432, worth €400,000 per décimo. The second prize was 70,048 (€125,000 per décimo) and the third prize was 90,693 (€50,000 per décimo). The fourth prizes were 78,477 and 25,508 (€20,000 per décimo). The eighth fifth prizes were 23,112; 60,649; 77,715; 25,412; 61,366; 94,273; 41,716; 18,669 (€6,000 per décimo).
There were also the countless smaller wins that keep the draw ticking along: the pedreas, paying €100 per décimo across nearly 2,000 numbers.
Why León ended up at the heart of this year’s emotion
El Gordo doesn’t always land like a lightning bolt. Often it spreads, quietly, through everyday life. This year, the loudest joy came from Castilla y León, where the top prize was sold across several towns, including La Bañeza and Villablino, with reports also pointing to Pola de Gordón.
The La Bañeza story carried extra weight. The town had been hit hard by wildfires earlier in the year, and the shared win — reported at roughly €468 million in total prize money distributed locally — landed less like a windfall and more like an overdue breath. Villablino, still marked by a recent tragedy linked to mining, also shared in the celebrations.
This is the social engineering at the centre of El Gordo. Spaniards don’t just buy tickets; they buy them together. Families, workmates and whole streets pool money for fractions of a number, then celebrate as a group if it hits. A décimo costs €20, but it’s the shared ownership — the feeling of being “in it” with other people — that gives the day its atmosphere.
If you’ve won, do this before you do anything else
First: treat the ticket like cash. Because it is.
Hold on to the original décimo, and take clear photos straight away. If it’s a shared ticket, make sure everyone’s details are recorded and agreed in writing. Spanish police and consumer groups have repeatedly warned that shared wins can turn messy if you can’t prove who owned what at the start.
Then check your number properly. TV broadcasts can include mistakes and confusion in the moment. The only version that matters is the verified official result list once checks are completed.
Where you collect the money — and what to bring
For smaller prizes, you can usually collect through official lottery points of sale. For bigger prizes, you’ll need a bank.
For the Christmas draw, prizes from €2,000 upwards are paid via the authorised banks BBVA and CaixaBank. You don’t need to be a customer, and you shouldn’t be charged a commission for collecting. Bring the original décimo and a valid ID, and expect extra checks for anti-money laundering rules.
Don’t sit on it. The right to claim prizes expires after three months — in practice, that takes you into late March 2026 for the 2025 draw, depending on how the deadline is counted.
Tax in Spain: the simple version
Spain applies a special levy on lottery prizes, but with a generous cushion.
Prizes of €40,000 or less are tax-free. Above that, 20% is withheld on the amount over €40,000 — normally at the point of payment, so you receive the net figure.
That means El Gordo’s €400,000 per décimo typically becomes €328,000 net after the withholding. The second prize nets €108,000, and the third nets €48,000.
If you’re resident outside Spain, you may still need to declare the win back home, depending on your country’s rules and any double-taxation arrangements.
El Gordo is still doing what it has always done
Every year, the same criticisms resurface — the odds, the hype, the way the prize has changed in real terms over decades. And still, on 22 December, Spain leans in.
That’s because El Gordo isn’t just about a single millionaire moment. It’s about thousands of smaller moments landing in the right hands: a bar staff rota suddenly easier to handle, a mortgage paid off, a family argument softened by relief, a town deciding it can breathe again.
If you’ve won, be careful with the practical steps. If you haven’t, you’re in the majority — and you’re already being invited to try again next year.
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