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Well it’s over for yet another year, the El Gordo Christmas lottery, or the Fat One, which dished out e2.5bn (£2.2bn) in prize money, much of it, I’m delighted to write, in the province of Alicante, where it deposited e33 million euro, although it still needs to get much, much, closer if I am to benefit.

El Gordo is a lottery tradition which dates back to 1812. It’s as much a social event as a sweepstake with relatives, co-workers, friends and members of social and sport clubs pooling their funds together to buy tickets.

With prices well beyond the amount that most people would spend on a lottery ticket the usual purchase tends to be a decimo, or 1/10th of a full ticket which costs e20 and which, should you be a winner, returns to you 10% of the amount that is won.

As such, despite the huge amount in prize money, a decimo of the winning ticket saw hundreds of winners from across the country pocket e325,000 each, after taxes.

Stories of the winners dominated the Spanish media on Thursday with the local press reporting on ten first prize winners in Torrevieja alone, each receiving a decimo of the main 4,000,000 euros prize. The series was sold at the outlet in the main Carrefour store, next to Habaneras. (Photo courtesy of Objectivo Torrevieja, shows the outlet owner)

Last year the Alicante province received just 12 million euro in prizes. This year the total has risen to 32.6 million.

"El super Quijote", in La Zenia Boulevard shopping centre in Orihuela Costa, sold a fourth prize winning ticket, 200,000 euros so if you hold a decimo of number 25296 you are now 20,000 euros better off.

Thankfully, as in 2020 and 2021, the winners who receive prizes of under e40,000 will not need to pay taxes on their windfall.

Meanwhile, an outlet in Pilar de la Horadada, at 62 C/Mayor, sold a fifth prize winning ticket, number 87902, which netted it’s lucky owners e60,000.

In total, people living in the Alicante province spent 137,472,380 euros in the Christmas Lottery, a record amount, which represents an increase of 6.69% compared to 2021, when 128,855,340 euros were gambled in this Extraordinary Christmas Draw.