Distributing El Gordo de Navidad is every lottery’s dream and a joy to know that it has helped many people. In addition, it is good publicity for the administration since television cameras move to its doors to record images of the winners celebrating between glasses of champagne. However, it is not the only reason for joy for lotteries. The administrations also add income from the sale of the tickets if they are awarded with El Gordo.
Few images are more widespread than that of the winners of the first prize in the Christmas lottery celebrating it, usually in the administration that distributed their luck. That alone represents a huge boost in advertising and, above all, the certainty of an increase in sales the following year.
Does the lottery that El Gordo distributes get anything more than that publicity? What percentage of the tenths is for the lottery administration?
How much does the lottery earn for each ticket sold?
Lottery administrations earn a fixed percentage of the price of each tenth they sell. This commission is fixed and is included in the Point of Sale Management Services contract that the administrations sign with the State Lottery and Betting Company (SELAE).
Specifically, the lottery administration earns 4% of its value for each Christmas ticket sold. That is, the lottery earns 0.80 per tenth, regardless of whether or not he or she turns out to be lucky.
Is there any additional commission with El Gordo?
One of the most widespread myths claims that lotteries charge an extra commission based on the prizes they distribute. Nothing is further from reality.
Lottery administrations do not receive any additional amount or commission if they distribute the first prize, nor for distributing the third, fourth, fifth or any other prize. This is true both for the Christmas Lottery and for any other SELAE draw.
Does the administration charge a commission for collecting El Gordo?
The only additional commission that the lottery administration receives has to do with the collection of prizes.
SELAE pays an additional commission when the winners go to the lottery administration to collect their prizes. It is worth remembering that it is only possible to collect prizes less than 2,000 euros from the administration. In fact, the lottery will only pay cash prizes up to 1,000 euros, although it can also pay those that do not exceed 2,000 euros through Bizum.
From this capital, the lottery administration will take a 2.5% commission for payments made up to 200,000 euros. Once that figure is exceeded, the commission you will receive will be reduced by half, 1.25%.
As an example, an administration issues payments worth 150,000 euros, it will earn 3,750 euros. If you increase that figure to 250,000 euros, you will receive 5,625. For this reason, in addition to selling the Christmas lottery, what the lotteries want is for you to go collect it if you win, even if it’s the stone.
If the prize is greater than 2,000 euros, you will have to go to one of the entities authorized by SELAE to collect it. By doing so, the bank will directly apply the corresponding withholding according to the amount of the prize. And the thing is, all the big prizes in the Christmas lottery pay taxes.
The Treasury will claim 20% of all amounts that exceed 40,000 euros. Here you can see how it works for each of the prizes:
THE NAIS IS OFFICIAL EDITOR ON NAIS NEWS