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Spaniards celebrated their Christmas lottery wins in the 200-year-old annual drawing known as "El Gordo" or "The Fat One". The lottery includes 2.38 billion Euros ($2.7 billion) in prize money and is considered the richest lottery in the world.

Groups will pool their money for tickets and people play the same numbers for decades. The top prize is 4 million euros ($4.5 million) and there are thousands of other smaller prizes.

The drawing is held in the Teatro Real opera house in Madrid and children from the San Ildefonso school call out the winning numbers to an audience with many dressed in costume. Winners popped champaign bottles and cheered with friends and family.

This year the lottery faced a protest strike of vendors who say they should get a greater percentage than 4 percent of the winning prizes.

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