Lotteries
From the basement of the Teatro Real to your television. X-ray of a century-old mechanism which shows the bass drum’s favorite patterns: low numbers predominate, less than 10,000.
We all have a brother-in-law, a mother-in-law, a work colleague, a neighbor from the fifth floor… who always repeats the same phrase, with slight variations, as December 22 approaches: “This year, yes, it’s mine. “Luck is on my side,” or something like that. It’s inevitable that meetings on these dates will be filled with after-dinner digital visionaries, “I’ll pay you back” split-tenths gurus, and advanced statistics experts after the last few drinks of the evening. There are thousands of these house shamans, some ensconced in their particular fantasy and others who play more out of tradition than blind faith. Almost like an inherited habit.
Rafa López (because, according to him, Rafael only calls him DGT) has been faithful to the same number for 26 years, a combination with which he maintains an almost intimate relationship: “My lucky number is 49287 because it was the neighborhood number, when I lived in the La Arena neighborhood, in Gijón. When you go out, live life and, for example, go for coffee, you meet the usual people. Everyone played it at the bar and that’s why I started playing it, it’s the game of my life. Even though he was unlucky, I love him.”
This attachment to a specific number that Rafa names also has its counterbalance when we look at the data. When we look back at the history of El Gordo since 2011, patterns emerge that go beyond superstitions and memories: there are combinations that have been among the winners more often than others and that, little by little, are drawing a trend after the media hype thickened 14 years ago.
The most repeated Gordo combinations are grouped in tens of thousands of 70,000: numbers like 76148 and 76448 stand out, built with the most attractive digits of the analyzed period. From there, behind each of these figures lies a precise methodology: from the guarding of the balls to the choreography of drums, hoppers and lyres which transforms the drawing of lots on December 22 into a ritual as mechanical as it is transparent.
The anatomy of the price, less visible than the anecdotes from the bar counters but just as decisive, explains how the thousands of figures which fuel the superstitions of all those who fill the December after-dinners with theories are prepared, counted and put into play.
This mechanism, scrutinized hours after the draw, guarantees that all the balls come into play on equal terms, but it does not prevent chance from leaving small traces on the drum over the years. When looking at the draw as a whole, beyond the number that falls every December 22, areas of the table appear where a greater number of main prizes are concentrated.
The selection by bracket draws a very precise geography within the 100,000 numbers in play. The lowest tenths, which do not reach tens of thousands, have been the most awarded over the last 14 years, with two Gordos, three second and six third prizes concentrated in a very narrow numerical range.
Other “favorite” areas of the draw are between 50,000 and 59,999 and between 70,000 and 79,999, with over 20 prizes in each and two Gordos in the 72,000 range.
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