"Gordo" Draw Tonight
Bought your ticket? The "Gordo Navideño" draw will be tonight a 7pm, live from la Plaza de la Cultura in downtown San José, that will for some be a dream come true.

Thousands have bought a portion (fracción) or an entire (entero) ticket of their favourite number that will pay the top prize ofg ¢350 million colones (us$707.000). Each winning portion pays out ¢8.750.000 (us$17.700). An entero is made up of 40 fracciónes.

Luis Polinaris, general manager of the Junta de Protección Social, 500.000 "enteros" were sold and the chances of winning the big one is 1 in 100.000.

The show begins at 3pm with cultural activities that will include music and dancers. At 6:30pm the lottery protocols will commence that precede the draw at 7.

Each year there has been report of ticket vendors selling at higher than face value. This year there are 221 complaints to the Junta de Protección Social. The cost of each fracción is ¢500 colones or an entero ¢20.000 colones. Polinaris said that by giving the Junta de Protección Social the ticket number they can track the vendor and take the appropriate actions.

If you don't win the big one tonight, you still have a chance to win the consolation draw that will be held next Saturday (December 24). Polinaris said that there are still lottery tickets available for that draw, so far only 72.9% of the tickets have been sold.