One man in Spain is kicking himself after the entire town won and shared in a $950-million lottery jackpot — except for him.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that roughly 70 households in Sodeto bought winning tickets for Spain’s Christmas lottery.
But one man, filmmaker Costis Mitsotakis, had been overlooked when a town homemakers group made the rounds selling lottery tickets to raise money last year.
Every household that bought a share in the drawing takes home at least $130,000, Newser reported.
The lottery is called “El Gordo” and has been a Spanish staple for the last 200 years. Today, tickets go for $26 a pop. Sodeto residents and people from 17 nearby villages bought tickets with the same winning number from the civic group. Their jackpot pumped $150 million in winnings into the area. A single ticket paid out $520,000.
Mitsotakis told the Times that he was sad he didn’t win anything. But he did get one lucky break out of it. A neighbor bought a big chunk of land that Mitsotakis had been trying to sell.
Sodeto is northeast of Madrid with a population of 250 people, largely comprised of farmers and construction workers. The unemployment level was said to be high. But now, some families are sitting on millions of dollars.
