A Spanish town devastated by wildfires in spring has seen its luck turn with a hundred-million-dollar windfall from a national lottery program.
Left with 120,000 acres of scorched woodland and 8,000 displaced residents, La Bañeza, in the region of Castilla y León, was engulfed in trauma and grief as much as smoke and fire.
The town prayed for rain, but the sunny Spanish sky declined.
Now, having bought 117 numbers in El Gordo Christmas lottery from the Spanish government, the town’s misfortune has turned to staggering quantities of luck, as each number paid out €400,000.
That means the village raked in half-a-billion USD as near as makes no difference. With roughly 10,000 residents, and considering that lotteries are normally heavily taxed, it would land each villager with somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000 —a godsend for those whose lands or homes were damaged in the fire.
“Winning the lottery, as well as cause for joy and excitement [sic], is something that has fallen from the heavens to a place that needs so much,” La Bañeza Mayor Javier Carrera said, adding it caused “a cascade of emotions after such a terrible year.”
LOTTERY STORIES TO DROP YOUR JAW:
- Lottery Ticket Hidden in Woman’s Bible Earns Her $1 Million
- Woman Overcomes Homelessness And Then Wins $5 Million Lottery
- A Man from Luck Won the Lottery
A truly beautiful superstition surrounding El Gordo numbers is that lightning never strikes twice, and that good luck follows bad. This sometimes sees players buy tickets in areas that have suffered misfortune.
The story of La Bañeza will undoubtedly reinforce this tradition of gambling that luck will turn around.
SHARE This Green Rain From Heaven On A Town That Needed It…