Loteria Nacional is the Spanish National Lottery and is run by Loterias y Apuestas del Estado – Loterias del Estado – the government of Spain and has been played since the year 1763 – which makes it one of the oldest and most respected lotteries in existence.

The Spanish National Lottery ensures that 70% of its funds generated through lottery ticket sales go right back to the people who paid for them in the form of prizes – this is the highest percentage of any lottery game in the world.

The Spanish National Lottery is one of the biggest lottery systems in the world and offers lotteries with some truly staggering prize pools to be won.

The Spanish Lotto is the most important and popular game in Spain and as a general rule, 1 out of every 3 tickets will have some kind of prize.

This lottery has such a wide appeal to lottery players around the world, that people from over 140 countries worldwide take part in it.

The very first draw for the Loteria Nacional - National Lottery itself took place way back in 1812.

Draws for the main Spanish National Lottery take place twice a week on Thursdays (at 22.00 CET) and Saturdays (at 13.30 CET).

Thursday draws have a prize pool of around €12 million and Saturday draws have a prize pool of around €42 million making this one of the biggest weekly lotteries in the world.

The Spanish Lotto - Loteria Nacional - draws are made in a slightly differently way from most traditional lotteries. Firstly, a numbered ball with a ticket number is drawn from one drum and then another ball with a prize value is drawn from a separate drum.

The ticket number on the ball drawn from the first drum is matched with the prize on the ball drawn from the second drum and ticket holders with that number are winners of that prize.

As with the way it is drawn, you actually play the Loteria Nacional Draws in a slightly different way to other lotteries too.

You aren’t able to choose your own Spanish Lottery numbers but instead purchase a ticket that already has a pre-printed number on it. There are also series of tickets with the same numbers on.

For each weekly Spanish National Lottery draw there are numbers from 00.000 to 99.000

Series & Decimos…

The Loteria Nacional ticket system works like this…..each ticket number is available either 6 times or 10 times - meaning that either 6 or 10 lots of tickets with the same number will be printed. These are called “series”.

For Thursday draws there are 6 “series” printed and for Saturday draws there are 10 “series”.

Each of those “series” is actually one “whole” ticket which is called a “billette”. This is normally too expensive for most people so each “serie” is divided into 10 smaller tickets called “decimos” (ie.10ths) costing a more affordable amount.

For Thursday draws a “decimo” costs anywhere from €3 to €6 with a whole “serie” costing from €18 to €36 – there are 6 “decimos” per “serie”.

For Saturday draws a “decimo” costs anywhere from €6 to €12 with a whole “serie” costing from €60 to €120 - there are 10 “decimos” per “serie”.

So, you are able to purchase either a whole ticket (“billette”) or as many “decimos” (10ths) of a ticket that you wish.

Many families across Spain put their money together and share the cost of a whole “billette” as one of their lottery strategies to maximise their chances. Even some entire villages in Spain do this and Jackpots have indeed been won this way making a whole village rather wealthy in one go!