Miquel Colina, son of the head of the ticket office that sold part of the winning number 06381 for Spain's El Gordo lottery, shows the winning numbers and a four-leaf clover as he celebrates in Vic near Barcelona December 22, 2007.

Spain's "El Gordo," the world's biggest lottery, gave out 2.2 billion euros (1.6 billion pounds) in Christmas prizes on Saturday.

El Gordo, Spanish for "The Fat One", is designed so that as many people as possible across Spain get a festive windfall.

The top prize this year was 3 million euros -- going to the series of tickets with the magic number 06381.

Because the tickets are sold in a series of 10, only those who paid 200 euros for the whole strip get the full prize.

The biggest share of winning tickets was bought by people in the town of Nava, in the north-western Asturias region.

The draw lasts three-and-a-half hours and is carried live on national television with children from the San Ildefonso school, a former orphanage in Madrid, in turn chanting the winning numbers and the amount won.

Lotteries have two centuries of history in Spain.

The country spent 2.87 billion euros on the lottery -- 5.7 percent more than last year. Seventy percent is paid out in prizes. Most of the rest goes in costs.

Eight out of ten Spaniards bought tickets for the lottery, spending on average 64 euros.

Spaniards often choose lottery numbers matching significant dates although there was no particular favourite in 2007.

In 2006, one of the most sought-after series was 22105, the date on which Fernando Alonso became Formula 1 world champion for the second year running.