Sunday 23 November
2008, San José, Costa
Rica
March Against
Violence Today
"Red Alert" For
Matina And Talamanca
Lottery Fever In The
Streets
List of Proposed
Traffic Fines
Black-market
Blackberrys
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Lottery Fever In The
Streets
The "gordo navideño",
the annual Christmas
lottery, hit the streets
recently and the rush is
on to buy favourite
numbers before the
December 14 draw and
lottery vendors begin to
horde them so that they
can get a premium price
in the final days.
Everyone has a favourite
number or series of
numbers that they will
be the lucky ones to
bring them a piece of
the ¢580 million colones
in the draw.
Some day the numbers
came to the in a dream,
others claim a dead
relative told them in a
dream. While others use
the last digits of their
cedula or pick the
numbers based on an
intuition. No matter the
method used for picking
numbers or the reason
behind, most Costa
Ricans play the
Christmas lottery,
clinging to the stories
of past winners, who
with only one "pedacito"
(a fraction of the
lottery ticket) bought a
car or a new house, etc.
An "entero" (an entire
ticket) is made up of 40
fractions in six
emission. The cost of an
entero is ¢32.000
colones with a major
prize paid of
¢580.000.000, while a
fraction costs only ¢800
colones and has a prize
of ¢14.500.000.
One vendor says that 04
and 40 has been very
popular this month,
marking the win by
Barack Obama of the US
presidential elections
on November 4.
The number 04 was a
winner in 1981 and 40
has come up a winner
twice (2006, 1986) in
the last 28 years of the
lottery. Last year the
number 61 was the grand
prize winner.
No matter what system is
used to pick a number,
one thing is for sure,
you need to buy a ticket
to win.
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