Thousands of Ibicencos with not a clue about statistics have wagered over €3.7 million on Spain's national lottery Christmas draw. Known as 'El Gordo' (The Big One), the prize is so massive that it is rumoured that in the days of the Peseta, the Government had a special think tank to come up with a new word, like squintillion, to cope with all the zeros in the winning amount!
Anyway, such is the demand to participate that the lottery shops in Ibiza are actually open on SATURDAY AFTERNOON, an event which hitherto had approximately the same odds as actually winning the lottery. Good luck everybody.'