El Gordo de la Primitiva

Spain’s state lottery commission, the Loterías y Apuestas del Estado runs many legitimate lotteries. The world’s biggest and most famous is the Sorteo de Navidad, nicknamed El Gordo. However, this should not be confused with El Gordo de la Primitiva, another famous Spanish lottery.

Although not as big as the Sorteo, it has many large cash payouts and is drawn every Sunday. El Gordo means the fat one and many Spanish lotteries will have a fat one or a big cash prize. El Gordo de la Primitiva tickets have two sets of numbers on a grid. A ticket buyer must pick five numbers from the first grid which number 1-54, and then one number from the second, which numbers from 1-9.

Spain loves its lotteries and the tickets can be purchased at any of eleven thousand locations. Each ticket costs €1.50. Some of the other national lotteries are La Loteria Nacional played every Thursday and Saturday; the Bonoloto, drawn every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; and la Primitiva, which is drawn every Thursday and Saturday.

Anyone can enter a Spanish lottery but the only restriction is that your winnings must stay in Spain or you will pay taxes upon entering another country. These lotteries are endorsed by the government but if they’re run by other than Loterías y Apuestas del Estado they may be scams.

 El Gordo de la Primitiva http://onlae.terra.es/loterias.htm If googled, hit the translate button first for English.

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El Gordo Scams

Many scams play off of the Spanish El Gordo name and the buyer’s relative ignorance of the difference from one el gordo to the next. The names may be similar to, but not the exact same as El Gordo de la Primitiva. Some of the names used have been La Primitiva, El-Mundo de la Primitiva, International Lottery de la Primitiva, El Gordo La Primitiva International, Loteria La Primitiva and Primitiva Award Notice.

One rather well-known scam is called El Gordo de la Primitiva Lottery International Promotions Programmes. Like other scam lotteries, this one sends email letters and a payment processing or registration form. The person may be told that their ticket was randomly selected by a computer and was sponsored by some company. In order to claim the prize, the victim is then asked for bank account details, and to contact someone in their claims or award department. Once the transfer of ‘winnings’ begins, the company will then start charging handling and processing fees, taxes, insurance, administrative costs, etc. The ‘winner’ will be asked to send money by wire transfer to supposed lawyers, bank executives or others in the company. All these ‘processes’ will slow down the receipt of the supposed prize while the victim pays out hundreds and sometimes thousands to the company. In the end, they’ll never see the prize, which didn’t exist to begin with.

It’s Important to know the types of lottery that Spain runs nationally and if they’re not run by the Loterías y Apuestas del Estado, then chances are the lottery is illegal or a scam. There are a few other legal lotteries not run by the Loterías, such as the Spanish National Blind Organisation (ONCE) but they are still approved of and tickets sold in legal kiosks. Spain’s national lottery never sends out emails notifiying you of winning. Any company that contacts you and says you’ve won a prize you don’t remember entering is probably a scam company. Addresses on letters should be checked to prove they’re correct and owned by the company listed. Mobile numbers in Spain begin with a 6 and no lottery ticket office will have one. Landlines begin with 95. Always be aware of  potential scams!

El Gordo de la Primitiva http://onlae.terra.es/loterias.htm if googled, hit translate first
http://www.idealspain.com/pages/Information/lottery.htm

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The World’s Largest Lottery

Spain hosts the largest lottery in the world with an average payout of over €2 billion. It is also one of the oldest running, continuous lotteries, drawn every year since 1812.  Nicknamed El Gordo, which means the fat one, its official name is Sorteo de Navidad (the Christmas Lottery). However, many different lotteries will have a Gordo in them as this just indicates the top prize or the first prize. This can cause confusion and lead to scams where people think they’re entering a particular lottery.

The Sorteo de Navidad has many prize payouts and the top prize varies from year to year but never under €2 billion. The ticket system is somewhat complicated but is based on drawing a five-digit number. However a ticket, called a billete, runs about €200 and is sold in smaller amounts called a décimo, or a tenth of a ticket for €20. Various lottery outlets might only sell one or two numbers in a series. Series of the same number are also sold, so it’s possible for a group or even a town to have all the top winning numbers. In 2005, 1,700 first prize tickets were sold in the town of Vic, near Barcelona. The winners shared about €500 million, with each décimo being worth €300,000.

The Sorteo’s numbers have been called the same way since its inception in 1812. Two spheres are brought out. One contains tens of thousands of wooden balls with all the ticket numbers on them. The other sphere holds balls with the prizes. School students from Madrid pick the numbers and sing the results. The process takes about three hours for all the prizes and the draw always happens just before Christmas

The Sorteo de Navidad is sometimes confused with El Gordo de la Primativa. Both lotteries are organized by Spain’s National Lottery organization Loterias y Apuestas del Estado  but having nothing else in common.

It’s important to note that a lottery will never contact you if you’ve won. For one, you buy a numbered ticket and they do not have your name. And two, lotteries expect you to check your numbers and contact them if you’ve won. Because of its worldwide fame for large prizes, there have been many email scams using El Gordo. In a lottery, if you haven’t bought a ticket, you cannot be a winner. And remember, you never have to pay any money in order to claim a legitimate prize.

http://navidadlae.terra.es/t_lae/home/home.aspx  (in Spanish) Or you can google Sorteo de Navidad and then click on “English translation,” if you can’t read Spanish.

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Sweepstakes as a Promotional Tool

Sweepstakes have been used as a legitimate form of promotion and advertising for many decades. Many merchandisers and Fortune 500 companies, from food to vehicle manufacturers have used sweepstakes. Without looking too far today you can probably find a promotional sweepstakes on a box of cereal, a candy bar wrapper, the back of a package, in a magazine, a mailed brochure and on a company website.

Sweepstakes have become an effective form of marketing for companies. By offering a prize, or prizes, sales and recognition of brands and products are greatly increased. A promotional sweepstakes is often tied into a product. When you receive this information you can read up about the product. Even if there is no immediate purchase, the product information will often stay with you so that when you decide to buy product X, you will often think of the information you already read.

You may be asked to do a survey or a quiz. These are other means of finding out how much you know about the products and what you think of them. Others will ask for a proof of purchase (such as food or healthy & beauty aids) to enter the contest though often the fine print mentions that you can enter without this requirement. What the proof of purchase information gives, is which products you’re buying and the percentage of customers who will read far enough to get to the sweepstakes information.

When you register for a sweepstakes many companies will then use that information to send further promotional products. Often, they have a spot that you can check as to receiving additional material. You might also receive a store-based promotion when shopping, which requires you to match pieces by either going to a website and checking the code, or by gathering other game pieces to form a word or match symbols.

The basic reason for any promotional sweepstakes is that by having a free prize give-away, combined with product information, the company gains more advertising, consumer awareness, sales and information. Sometimes, a sweepstakes will provide a person with the opportunity to buy a product for a modest fee. Just a sampling of some products in which you’ll find sweepstakes attached: software, hiking gear, auto manufacturers, jewellery, sports equipment, makeup, food products, movie theatres, clothing and airlines. And in all cases, you can’t win unless you enter.

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We Have a Winner

The drawing for our latest sweepstakes was on July 1, 2007. IAT lawyers are still working through the paperwork but it looks like the winner is from Japan. As soon as all legal requirements are met and the winner contacted we’ll have more information. This person has won 10,000,000 yen. Congratulations!

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The Irish Sweepstakes: How it All Began

Lotteries were at one time illegal, as were many forms of gambling, in England and Ireland. To counteract this, the Irish Sweepstakes (also called Irish Hospitals’ Sweepstakes) was launched in Canada and the US in 1930. It really was a lottery, where people bought tickets and the proceeds went to raise money for Irish hospitals. Over 135 million pounds were raised. The winner was based on the outcome of several horse races.

Banned in the US in 1949 the tickets were still smuggled in aboard freighters and destined for the black market. With the increase and acceptance of lottery gambling in other countries, the Irish Sweepstakes declined and ended in 1987.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_sweepstakes
http://allaboutirish.com/library/bits/sweepstakes.shtm
http://www.tomwaitslibrary.com/lyrics/talesfromtheunderground3/anickelsworthofdreams.html (Tom Waits song mentioning the Irish Sweepstakes)

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