There was a time to win the Christmas lottery it made you really rich. No more. A century ago, at the end of the 1920s, with the “Gordo” you could buy twelve buildings and five cars; In 1968, this number dropped to twelve houses. … and 22 cars; and by 2008 it was reduced to one house and three cars. The study was carried out by the Spanish Radio Television taking into account the rewards, salaries and prices or the cost of living each time. Today, in 2025, according to the analysis of the real estate portal ‘pisos.com’, with the 328,000 euros of ‘Gordo’, once the taxes collected by the Treasury are deducted, one can barely buy a typical house and there are regions, like Madrid or the Balearic Islands, in which not even so.
And not only that, the act of playing is also becoming more and more difficult. To continue the historical evolution of RTVE, in the Christmas Lottery a century ago, you could win 1,715,429 euros for 0.60 cents at the current exchange rate; and in 1968, the winner won 847,246 euros for six euros.
The deduction is therefore easy. a century ago 2,859,048.33 euros were won for each euro played (result of dividing 1,715,429 by 0.6), in 1968 it was 141,207.67 per euro (847,246 by six) and today it is 16,400 (328,000 by 20). Or, more clearly: the “Gordo” of a century ago was 174.33 times higher and that of 1968 was still multiplied by 8.61 compared to the current one.
The National Group of Provincial Associations of Lottery Administrators (Anapal) proposed increasing the tenth from 20 to 25 euros and the “Gordo” to 500,000. Its president, Borja Muñiz, said that the first prize, of 400,000 euros, was set 14 years ago and that at the time “it represented a much higher purchasing power.” It proves that, according to the INE, the variation in the CPI from December 2011 to October 2024 was 26%. And he says: “We want El Gordo to be a prize that makes dreams come true and not just fills holes.”
Up to the tenth?
In addition to making the tenth and the “Gordo” more expensive in the same proportion, Anapal request to increase the commission that lotteries receive for each ticket sold for the Christmas draw. It is now 4.5% (90 cents for 20 euros), lower than the 6% which belongs to them in the rest of the draws.
In this sense, Ignacio Alda, of Loterías María del Carmen, administration number 6 of Logroño which distributed the “Gordo” in 2024, is contrary to the majority opinion of Anapal: “We must fight for the State to increase our commissions, but without harming the customer. 20 euros represents an effort for many people and if you increase it to 25, there will be some who will buy four instead of five tenths.
After resolving both problems, the Société Nationale des Lotteries et des Bets considers that “all opinions are respectable, but the evolution of the price of Selae products is linked to the permanent analysis it makes of the perception of its customers and to market studies in which the citizens themselves participate”.
Increase in commissions
Regarding the possible increase in commissions from 4.5 to 6%, “we do not wish to evaluate it out of principle of prudence and discretion regarding the internal dialogue forums of our public company with the lottery associations”. Despite this, State Lotteries and Paris recalls that in 2022 “a set of measures was agreed with the associations representing the sector which led to a cumulative growth in commissions of 16.82% in three years; which means that, if we compare 2021 with 2024, Selae has allocated 109,350,000 euros more to commission expenses in its points of sale.
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