El Nino is an unusual type of Spanish national lottery game. Spanish national lottery is an official lottery organized by the Spanish government and has been operating since 1763.

Players can take part in this lottery just after the huge Christmas lottery in Spain. Exactly on January 6, on the Feast of Epiphany, El Nino draw takes place, and the jackpot is huge. It is an exciting event for all the players, because the prizes are huge and some people after winning in December want some more fresh prizes.

This is the first such an attractive lottery in Spain in the New Year and a chance to get rich. The name El Niño means “child” or “small”, which is rather confusing taking into account the huge pool of prizes that reaches hundreds of millions of euros! Not only the big prizes attract players from around the world, but also impressive chances to win, namely 1: 3. In addition, having only one El Niño ticket, a player can win up to 8 times.

How to play?

The game philosophy is based on sharing the maximum number of prizes between the players, so each player has many opportunities to win at least a small prize, and with little luck reach for a big prize. The National Lottery prizes are fully guaranteed because the draw is run by the Spanish government. This lottery is slightly different from a usual traditional lottery. Despite the differences, it still resembles to some extent its older brother, El Gordo. The tickets set is printed within the range from 0 to 99.999.

Each of these numbers is printed several times on the so-called “set”. There are many sets with the same number (usually around 50 or 60). Each set has 10 bets, which can be purchased individually. The whole set is called “bilette”, and a single bet is called “decimo”.

Decimo, in other words, is one tenth of the whole set and means that if the number from your decimo is drawn, you will receive one tenth of the prize. Having the whole set (i.e. 10 x decimo with the same 5-digit number), will allow winning the whole prize.

The winning number is drawn for the first, second and third levels of prizes. Also many other additional prizes are drawn, which regards matching the first and last digits from the winning drawn number. Other additional prizes are awarded for matching the number by 1 bigger and by 1 smaller than the winning number.

What are the categories of additional prizes?

Categories of additional prizes are, as follows::

A special jackpot awarded for 1 decimo (i.e. 1/10 of a set).
A number by 1 bigger and by 1 smaller than the 1st degree winning number.
A number by 1 bigger and by 1 smaller than the 2nd degree winning number.
A number with the same 3 first digits as the 1st degree winning number.
A number with the same 3 first digits as the 2nd  degree winning number.
A number with the same 3 first digits as the 3rd  degree winning number.
A number with the same 3 last digits as the 1st degree winning number.
A number with the same 3 last digits as the 2nd  degree winning number.
A number with the same 2 last digits as the 1st category winning number.
A number with the same last digit as the 1st degree winning number.

Last 3 digits – separately thirteen 3-digit numbers are drawn.
Last 2 digits – three 2-gidit numbers are drawn.
Last 1 digit – two 1-digit numbers are drawn.

What if I win?

Winners of over EUR 2,500 (USD 3250) must pay 20% tax on their prizes. This applies to everyone, regardless of whether they are from Spain or from anywhere else in the world. El Nino is open to all players. It is popular and it is estimated that 93% of people playing El Gordo also play El Nino.