The Balearics love a lottery flutter

Last year the Balearic islands accounted for some of the biggest lottery gamblers in Spain, spending 26'000 million pesetas on the Thursday and Saturday draws. At the end of the nineties, the Balearics enjoyed a good run of lottery luck. The highlight was when Coll d'en Rebassa won the Christmas El Gordo, the fat one, five years ago, making nearly everyone in the area millionaires over night. However, lady luck has not shone too brightly on the islands over the past few years, although few people have been put off buying lottery tickets and playing the Spanish equivalent of the football pools. Last year a total of 1.4 billion pesetas was spent on lottery tickets and the pools, nearly four per cent more than in 1999 and a further increase is expected to be registered this year.