The winner, who walked away with 101 million, paid eight euros for a ticket from a machine in a modest lottery outlet in Barcelona's Poble Nou.
The lucky individual, as is usual in such cases, remains anonymous. Outlet owners hugged after learning about the prize. The winner of the biggest grand prize of the weekly lottery to date, 101 million euros, bet "eight euros with a ticket from a lotto machine," said Antonio Cortes, SELAE’s Barcelona sales representative, adding that the Treasury will pocket 20 % of the prize.
Cortés, from the State Lotteries and Gambling Company, set the prize at 101,724,559.10 euros, and insisted that the bet was dispensed by a machine at a lottery ticket outlet in Poble Nou. The owner, Montserrat García said that validating a lotto ticket worth 101 million euros makes “your legs tremble” and gives you "butterflies in your stomach".
While the lucky winner, as is usual in such cases, remains anonymous, last Friday the lottery ticket vendor told the media about all the happiness and nerves she felt after selling the top prize paid out by the weekly lotto. The modest lottery ticket outlet in Poble Nou, a mostly working class community, had paid out numerous winnings so far, "especially for the football pools," but this time they have hit the jackpot.
It was a friend from a nearby bar who gave them the news, but they refused to believe it until she "became really serious" and assured them that they had sold the winning ticket. "You can’t explain it; you get a tight feeling in your stomach and your head spins, because a prize like this one means so much to a business."
