El Gordo de Navidad 2026: Draw Date, Prizes and How the Spanish Christmas Lottery Works
El Gordo de Navidad 2026 is drawn on Tuesday, 22 December in Madrid, with €2,870 million in prizes. A décimo costs €20 and the top prize pays €400,000 per décimo. Here is how the Spanish Christmas Lottery works.
Every year on 22 December, Spain stops for a few hours to watch the Lotería de Navidad, the Christmas Lottery whose top prize everyone calls El Gordo – “the fat one”. In 2026 the draw takes place on Tuesday, 22 December at the Teatro Real in Madrid, and it will pay out €2,870 million in prizes, €98 million more than last year.
El Gordo de Navidad 2026 at a Glance
- Draw: Tuesday, 22 December 2026, in the morning, Teatro Real, Madrid
- Total prizes: €2,870 million
- Price: €20 per décimo (one tenth of a ticket)
- Top prize: €400,000 per décimo (€4 million per full series)
- Odds of El Gordo: 1 in 100,000 per number
How the Christmas Lottery Works
You do not choose your own numbers. Each ticket carries a pre-printed five-digit number from 00000 to 99999, so there are 100,000 numbers in the draw. Every number is issued in 205 series, and each full ticket (billete) is split into ten décimos of €20. That is why Spanish families, offices and bars often share the same number: when it wins, a whole street can celebrate together.
During the draw, children from the Colegio de San Ildefonso pick the balls from two large drums and sing the numbers and prizes. The tradition is more than 200 years old.
El Gordo de Navidad 2026 Prizes per Décimo
- El Gordo (1st prize): €400,000
- 2nd prize: €125,000
- 3rd prize: €50,000
- Two 4th prizes: €20,000 each
- Eight 5th prizes: €6,000 each
- Pedrea (1,794 numbers): €100
- Reintegro (numbers ending in the same digit as El Gordo): €20 back
There are also smaller prizes for numbers close to the top prizes. In Spain, lottery prizes up to €40,000 are tax-free and the amount above that is taxed at 20%, so a winning décimo of El Gordo leaves about €328,000 after tax.
Can You Play El Gordo on LottoPark?
The Christmas Lottery itself is sold through Spanish lottery outlets and is not available on LottoPark. But you do not have to wait until December to play for a Spanish “Gordo”. El Gordo de la Primitiva, run by the same state operator, Loterías y Apuestas del Estado, is drawn every Sunday at 21:30 Madrid time, and you can play it online on LottoPark from anywhere in the world.
- Estimated jackpot for Sunday, 25 October 2026: €19.8 million
- Pick 5 numbers from 1 to 54 and 1 key number from 0 to 9
- Jackpot odds: 1 in 31,625,100; about 1 in 6 lines wins a prize
- Record jackpot: €33,024,545.53, won by a single ticket in 2011
Choose your numbers on the El Gordo ticket page, or read how the two games differ in our article on El Gordo de Navidad and El Gordo de la Primitiva.
El Gordo de Navidad: Frequently Asked Questions
When is El Gordo de Navidad 2026?
On Tuesday, 22 December 2026, in the morning, at the Teatro Real in Madrid.
How much does a décimo cost and what does El Gordo pay?
A décimo costs €20. El Gordo pays €400,000 per décimo, or €4 million for a full series of ten décimos.
What are the odds of winning El Gordo de Navidad?
1 in 100,000 for the top prize, because there are 100,000 numbers in the draw.
Can I play a Spanish El Gordo online?
Yes. El Gordo de la Primitiva is drawn every Sunday and you can play it on LottoPark. The Christmas Lottery itself is not offered on LottoPark.
