Odd News

Small Spanish town wins $914M in lottery

Published: Dec. 22, 2011 at 8:27 PM

GRANEN, Spain, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- Residents of the small Spanish town of Granen won about $914 million in the world's largest lottery, the so-called El Gordo, or the Fat One, Thursday.

About $2.61 billion was distributed to winners of the lottery around the country, with the largest portion going to the farming community of Granen. The town is home to about 2,000 people, who won as much as $522,000 each for buying shares in the top-paying lottery number. Many of the town's residents are unemployed, as are about 23 percent of the country's population.

"Now I can stop worrying so much about getting the sack," a bricklayer named Oscar said after picking up his share.

The Spanish state keeps 30 percent of the money spent on the lottery, roughly $1.3 billion, The Guardian reported.

© 2011 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

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