PHOTOS: Sergio Betancort.
All the customers who were queuing at noon on December 22 at the lottery administration in the Deiland shopping center to check their pools, buy their Primitiva tickets or, the most impatient, find out if their Christmas Lottery tickets were prize-winning, were astonished when a great commotion began to break out and the administration began to fill with people, singing, dancing and chanting cheers. The Christmas Jackpot had been won. A complete series of the number 13,437 had been sold in the establishment and the news had already spread like wildfire.
While one of the employees was still attending to customers, the manager of the administration, Saro Martín, could no longer get off the phone. "It's been won here, yes! It's been won here!", she confirmed excitedly amidst the shouting, unable to contain her tears. The administration sold 10 tickets of this number at the window, awarded with 400,000 euros each. In the 14 years they have been open, it was the first time they had given an important prize. "I thought a fifth would fall, a small prize... I didn't imagine it would be the jackpot," explained the euphoric Saro.
The joy began to spread among all those who were arriving at the administration. The employees, the clients and the curious, who peeked out to see the revelry, uncorked bottles of champagne with which the employees, overflowing with happiness, sprayed themselves and splashed all those present.
"I thought it was a joke, that it was propaganda, but this is true!", said Saro, laughing non-stop. Meanwhile, photographers crowded around her to get a snapshot of the moment when she, proudly, put on the regulation shirt, to show in large letters the proof of her fortune: "First prize sold here". In the background, the friends and family of the employees, who were quick to arrive to congratulate them, chanted the winning number aloud, becoming improvised San Ildefonso children.
The manager of the administration had not even had the opportunity to check if she herself had taken a tenth, although she feared that she had not kept that number. But that has not prevented her from celebrating it as if it were. "I can't explain how excited I am, it's better than if it had happened to me," she said. "I would like everyone to know that it has been won here, because we have many Canarian and peninsular friends who come to buy," added Saro, who immediately turned around to melt into a new congratulatory hug with one of her regular customers, both willing to continue the party.
