Lottery

Many people believe that politics “doesn’t work.” For some the solution is to elect public officials by lottery

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Beyond the fact that it can solve your life with a few million euros, the lottery – in lower case, as a general concept – offers some interesting characteristics. One of them, and not the least, is that, in its own way, it is incorruptible. If applied well, there is no human way to circumvent it. Chance plays its role and smiles at some or others in a totally random way, regardless of whether they have spent a fortune on your organization. Another is that, precisely for that reason, it is totally democratic. In the bass drum there is no ball with a greater chance of coming out than another. With such a cover letter, the question we could ask ourselves is: Would a democracy work based on draws, on randomness? Would it work a “lotocracy”? Neither the question nor the term are new. Not at all. What’s more, the Athenians – pioneers par excellence in democratic governments – considered something similar a couple of centuries before our era, when they used lots to elect some public positions. The same mechanism continued to work in certain cases and with conditions throughout history. A formula with history… and supporters We find it in cities of what is now Italy during the Middle Ages and also in the Renaissance; but it declined in the 17th century, with the representative systems. From a formula similar to the one we continue to use today to choose the presidents of the neighborhood communities, we moved to another that, at least on paper, aspires to choose the best for public positions. In a 21st century with the system riddled by corruption and clientelist networks, there are, however, those who advocate recovering the philosophy of “lotocracy.” In the academic sphere we find respected voices, such as that of the philosopher Alex Guerrero, the political scientist Helene Landemore or the historian David Van Reybrouck that invite, at least, to dwell on its virtues. Beyond the tribunes and atriums of the universities there are also movements, such as Sortition Foundationwho advocate a formula that wants to place the citizen in the center of political decision making. “By selecting representative groups of ordinary people by lottery and bringing them together in citizens’ assemblies we can break the stranglehold of career politicians on decisions and circumvent powerful vested interests,” Sortition advocatewith headquarters in the United Kingdom, Austria and the United States, before putting the finger on one of the great problems of modern democracies: the “disillusionment” and “distrust” that the political class arouses. You don’t have to go to the English-speaking world to find it. In Spain, the CIS places corruption, fraud and the behavior of public officials among the main concerns of citizens, even ahead of education or housing. 19th-century painting by Philipp Foltz depicting the Athenian politician Pericles before the Assembly. According to the Sortition registry, there are a good handful of initiatives verified by the OECD throughout the world that, in the style of open assembliesshare or have shared their philosophy of empowering neighbors. In Spain, several are identified, such as the participatory platform Madrid decideswhich was created with the aim of presenting proposals, achieving participatory accounts and voting in citizen consultations; G1000also located in the capital; either Besaya Citizen Jurywhich proposes ways to use European funds in the Besaya basin. Beyond the isolated initiatives that seek to reinforce the political weight of citizens, can a system recover, the lotocracythat –as collected by Leandro Omar El Eter— was conceived as “a form of government that promotes access to public office through lottery”? Pablo Simonpolitical scientist and editor of Politikonremembers that the formula of democracy by lottery has little new, but points out the advantages that could be brought by “exploring” a hybrid model, which combines its strengths with those of the current system, as in the irish constitutional conventionformed in 2012 to discuss proposals for amendments to the nation’s charter and which included, among other members, randomly selected people. There, in Ireland, the citizens’ assembly served, for example, to address complex problems, such as the legalization of abortion. The United Kingdom also verified its usefulness, with a forum of 108 people which, after weeks of debate, prepared a report with a battery of proposals to fight climate change. “I find it interesting to explore this system in combination. For example, the experience of the irish constitutional convention. In those cases the draw was hybridized with the representatives. If we created more forums or spaces with citizen raffles and they were allowed a part of the management, it wouldn’t seem bad to me. Just as we have participatory budgets or the ILPsthat a part of the budget could be managed by a committee chosen by citizens at random, but with technical support. I think we should explore these types of things because it would help people feel more connected to the institutions,” reflects Simón. The key, there is plenty, would be to find “a good design”: “Knowing how it would be done, with whom and what powers or powers would be given to that body chosen by lot. Always looking for combinations that allow correction, returning to a model in which this mechanism of direct citizen participation has a greater perception of accountability, of closeness.” Weaknesses and strengths The system in its purest form, of course, has its strengths and weaknesses. Among the first, the political scientist insists on its fully democratic character. “There is no electoral rule more radically democratic than the lottery and this is because basically it is assuming that everyone is competent to perform the functions of government,” he explains. What does it mean for that to be so? From the outset, it greatly complicates one of the great evils of the current system: clientelism, the networks of supporters that end up forming around those who hold political power. How to do it when someone who holds a position does so by chance and without guarantees that they will retain it? “It is a … Read more

An 80-year-old retiree won 2.7 million euros in the lottery and invested it in something unexpected: creating a drug trafficking network

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That a chemistry professor sick with cancer becomes one of the largest manufacturers of methamphetamine is something that gave us hours of entertainment with Breaking Bad. What we didn’t see coming is that a retiree from the United Kingdom could serve as inspiration for a sequel to the popular series. As detailed police sourcesan 80-year-old man won a small fortune in the lottery and, instead of investing it in Nvidia stock either in Hermès bags, He displayed an unexpected entrepreneurial spirit by setting up a fake pill factory that generated hundreds of millions of euros. The stroke of luck that changed everything. John Eric Spiby, from Wigan in Greater Manchester, won €2.77 million in the British Lotto in 2010. With that money he bought a rural property in Astley (west of Manchester) and started his new business venture there: manufacturing pills. The detail is that the pills he was manufacturing were etizolama thienodiazepine six to ten times more powerful than diazepam, and mixed it with other ingredients to make perfect imitations of legal anxiolytics. In Xataka Millions of Spaniards consume benzodiazepines to sleep at night. They don’t know it’s poisoned candy The Retiree’s Band. John’s son, John Colin Spiby, 37, was responsible for managing daily production in a rented container next to the house. A friend, Callum Dorian, was responsible for distributing the pills through encrypted chats on platforms such as EncroChat. For his part, Lee Ryan Drury, 45, helped with logistics. Each member of the band had an assigned role so that the entire production and distribution infrastructure functioned on an industrial scale. They sold the pills to 65 pence each (the equivalent of 75 cents) but the total estimated value reached 332 million euros on the black market. The raid that uncovered him. Spiby’s “pharmaceutical” scheme was uncovered in April 2022. Police stopped a vehicle at a hotel in Manchester and found 2.5 million fake pills valued at 77 million euros. The investigation took them to the Spiby farm, where they found hydraulic presses, automatic packaging machines, firearms, ammunition and enough equipment to produce million pills a month. The etizolam they manufactured reached a magnitude that, in the previous months, 58% of the opioid-related deaths in 2021 in Scotland, they were because of pills like those manufactured by Spiby. Dorian, the distribution manager, boasted in messages comparing Spiby’s business to drug trafficking empires, while the gang armed its distributors to protect the companies. key distribution routes. {“videoId”:”x8px49v”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”ANTIBIOTICS are CEASING TO BE EFFECTIVE and the PROBLEM is SUPERBACTERIA”, “tag”:”Webedia-prod”, “duration”:”327″} The judge has just sentenced the band. The case came to Bolton court in November 2025. According to published The Timesduring the trial Spiby denied any knowledge of the organization that manufactured etizolam pills, claiming that he only rented his property to make some extra money. However, the chats, bank transfers and machinery pointed to him as the main financier, in addition to having found a Lotus and a Porsche that he had hidden in his garage next to the pill manufacturing machines, and the testimony of some neighbors who claimed to have seen him driving around in a Lamborghini, as he collected the BBC. The judge sentenced Spiby and his henchmen in January 2026. “Despite winning the lottery, he decided to continue a life dedicated to crime, far from what would have been normal years of retirement,” the court noted in its ruling. John Eric Spiby was sentenced to 16 years and one month in prison; his son at 9 years old. Drury, the logistics manager, was sentenced to 9 years in prison and Dorian, who already had a 12-year sentence pending, received more time. In total, 47 years in prison for the retiree’s gang. In Xataka | 13% of Spaniards have tried cocaine once in their lives. If we ask the dogs of Madrid the percentage will be higher Image | AMC, Unsplash (Candace Mathers) (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news An 80-year-old retiree won 2.7 million euros in the lottery and invested it in something unexpected: creating a drug trafficking network was originally published in Xataka by Ruben Andres .

There was a time when the Lottery Jackpot “took you away from work.” Today it barely takes away a part of the mortgage

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Someone who already has gray hair still remembers that, thirty years ago, May you get the Christmas Fat Man It was practically the key to financial freedom. With the full prize of one tenth (about 30 million pesetas in the 90s) you could buy several houses, pay mortgages and even ensure the well-being of your family with that stroke of luck. Today, with a prize of 400,000 euros (328,000 euros after taxes), that story sounds very different. One of the main conditions is that, in the mid-nineties, the real estate market in Spain I played in another league. Buy an apartment…or several In cities like Madrid, a home of about 90 square meters could be found for less than 14 or 15 million pesetas, according to official statistics. That meant that Fatty Christmas allowed to buy two apartments medium-sized in a big city, or buy one, pay off the mortgage and a good pinch to maintain a good margin of liquidity. In those years, the award was not just help: it was a complete break from financial worries. As was often heard at the doors of lottery administrations while the winners uncorked bottles of champagne, it was a prize that “kept you off work.” Thirty years later, the prize is still striking in terms of numbers, but its real purchasing power has changed. El Gordo has been frozen at 400,000 euros per tenth for more than a decade, while the price of housing has followed an almost constant upward trajectory. In Madrid, the average house price It ranges between 5,500 and 5,758 euros per square meter, which implies that with the 328,000 euros net of the prize, you can barely purchase 60 or 70 square meters at an average price. In practice, this means that Gordo no longer even guarantees a standard floor in many neighborhoods of the capital. Barcelona offers a similar image. With average prices located at 3,084 euros per square meter, the Gordo de Navidad allows buy a modest home or a medium-sized apartment in peripheral areas, but it is far from the purchasing capacity it had in the nineties. The comparison leaves no room for doubt: where before the prize opened the door to buying an apartment in the city and a house on the beachtoday it is barely enough for one, and not necessarily in the best conditions. The contrast is softened slightly if the market is viewed from more affordable cities. In capitals like Zamora or Lugo, where average prices are between 980 and 1,300 euros per square meter, El Gordo continues to allow you to buy spacious homes or even more than a small property. However, even in these more affordable markets, the premium no longer equivalent to that massive asset leap that it represented three decades ago. The difference is not so much in the amount of the prize as in the uneven evolution of prices. This purchasing capacity is also explained by the general price context. He housing cost It was much more aligned with the average income of the population and access to property was not subject to the housing and demand pressure that characterizes the current market. El Gordo, in that scenario, functioned as a real wealth multiplier. A Gordo with more salary, but less power make a salary comparison helps to better understand this change of scale. In the 90s, the average annual salary in Spain was around 2 million pesetas (about 12,000 euros). In that context, the Gordo of 30 million pesetas was equivalent to approximately 15 times the annual salary of a worker medium, which reinforced its perception as an immediate economic transformation: decades of income concentrated in a single stroke of chance. Today, according to the latest data from the National Statistics Institute, the median salary annually in Spain is around 23,300 euros. With this reference, the current Gordo’s 328,000 euros is equivalent to just over 14 times the median annual salary. The proportion, curiously, is not that different from that of the nineties. The big difference appears when that salary multiple faces the price of housing (and all goods in general), which has grown much faster than income. That’s the key to change. Although the premium maintains a similar relationship with salaries, your ability to buy a home has deteriorated drastically. The real estate market has become decoupled from wage growth, and El Gordo, by remaining fixed, has been trapped in the middle of that gap. What was previously enough to buy two apartments today barely covers one, and in many cases forces them to continue getting into debt, although to a lesser extent. The social meaning of Gordo has changed. In the nineties it was synonymous with total economic independence. In 2025, it is still an extraordinary stroke of luck, but its role has shifted, no longer guaranteeing financial freedom, but financial relief. In Xataka | There is something even more difficult than winning the Lottery Jackpot: not making mistakes with the Treasury when collecting it Image | Flickr (srgpicker)

This year’s El Gordo is not in the Lottery. There are Christmas baskets that offer fortunes and the prize does not go through the treasury

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The Christmas basket, today converted into an almost mythological object of the work calendar and Spanish commercialwas not born as an innocent gesture or as a marketing strategy, but as a very ancient expression of power, hierarchy and dependence. If the Romans raised their heads today they would not believe it: their sportula is no longer a simple basket, it is something much bigger than the Christmas “Gordo” himself. Literally, From Rome to the draw of the 21st century. In imperial Rome, during the Saturnalia in December, patrons gave their clients the sportula: a wicker basket with quality food (figs, bay leaves, select products) that was offered during the morning greetingthe morning ritual in which the protected came to pay respect to the patron. That basket It wasn’t just food.: It was a tangible reminder of who protected whom and how subsistence was articulated around personal relationships of fidelity. Centuries later, this logic reappeared in other forms in the Anglo-Saxon tradition of Boxing Daywhen the wealthy classes distributed boxes with gifts to their domestic servants, and also in the medieval ecclesiastical sphere, where the “Christmas boxes” functioned as donations to the most disadvantaged. The central idea was always the same: close the year with a material gesture that strengthened social, work or moral ties. The Spanish basket. In Spain, the Christmas basket began to consolidate late 19th century in public organizations and administrations, but it was not until the 1950s when it became widespread as a recognizable business gift, first in the public sector and later in the private sector. Those baskets, wicker and almost Roman in appearance, combined Christmas sweets, sausages, cheeses and bottles of wine or cava, and were usually delivered along with the extra pay. They were not a luxury, but yes a symbol: the worker brought home something that was opened as a family and consumed on key dates, integrating the world of work into the domestic ritual of Christmas. As the decades passed, the lot stopped being an accessory and became an identifying gesture of the company, an object that spoke of both the budget and the corporate culture. From ham to musical. The social and labor evolution of the country has been pushing the basket to transform without extinction. Generational diversity, changes in consumption habits and new food sensitivities have made the unique model stop working. Today, traditional baskets coexist with digital catalogs where employees choose between technological products, cultural experiences or gourmet gifts. The whole ham gives ground to slicing for economic, practical and demographic reasons, and high-proof beverages are reduced. Vegan, gluten-free or alcohol-free batches appear, and more care is taken with design, sustainability and the continent. However, even those driving the change recognize that a “romanticism” that is difficult to replace persists: the experience of coming home with a box, opening it as a family, and associating that moment with the recognition of the work done during the year. An industry that lives on a month. Behind this apparently simple gesture there is a highly specialized economic sector that concentrates a good part of your billing in just three months. Companies that think about baskets all year round, that negotiate with suppliers, adjust prices in response to inflation of ham, cocoa or oil, and that have survived crises like that of 2008 by becoming professional and gaining scale. Large stores and wholesale distributors move hundreds of thousands of lots each campaignfrom modest baskets of less than 10 euros to premium proposals that exceed 1,000. At the same time, the basket has also become a delicate tax area: it is a remuneration in kind when the company delivers it, a capital increase when it is won in a raffle, and a detail that, depending on its value, may require taxation. That fiscal component, paradoxically, has driven some of the most striking innovations. Promotional image of the “basket” of El Paisano When the basket surpasses the Gordo. The definitive leap from the symbolic to the spectacular comes when the basket stops being a set of foods and becomes a great vital draw. The best-known case this year is that of the grill The Countrymanin the province of Seville, which since 2008 has been expanding its “Great Basket of Kings” until reaching a value in 2025 close to 850,000 eurosa figure that doubles the net prize of one tenth of the Gordo de Navidad. High-end cars, motorhomes, motorcycles, an apartment on the coast, technology, gold bars and food coexist in a single prize that, in addition, is awarded with taxes and expenses assumed by the organizer. For ten euros of participation, the winner can wake up with a completely different material life. Here the basket stops being a metaphor and becomes an economic, media and social event. The bizarre thing is also Christmas. But if anything shows how far this tradition has come, it is its ability to embrace the unusual without complexes. In Ourense, a funeral home decided to put together its Christmas basket inside a coffin displayed in the window. The content, valued at 2,300 eurosincludes everything from technology and appliances to ham and sweets, and the coffin itself can be carried “if the whim is too much.” Far from being a gratuitous provocation, the raffle has a solidarity purpose and seeks to energize the life of the neighborhood. The scene well summarizes the contemporary spirit of the basket: an object that no longer fears excess, uncomfortable humor or exaggeration, because its main function is to attract attention, generate community and close the year with a story to tell. Tradition that was never innocent. As we see, since the sportula roman to the basket that is raffled in a coffin or the one that is worth more than the Fat Man without going through the Treasurythe Christmas basket has changed in form, content and scale, but not in profound meaning. Deep down it is still a closing ritual, a material transfer loaded with social meaning, or a way of saying “you … Read more

For decades, the “00000” has fascinated Christmas Lottery players. The reason: the King’s Number

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All the Lottery numbers They have the same chance of winning the Christmas prize, but not all of them generate the same interest or are surrounded by the same halo of fascination. Perhaps one of the most enigmatic is the “00000”. And it is because the doubts it raisesquestions that resurface every December just like the nougats in the supermarkets, the perfume ads on TV or the LED lights in Vigo. Does it really exist? Can it be purchased? And above all… Is it true that it is the number that gives Lotteries and Betting from the State to the Royal House? There are those who are so sure of the latter that they even refer to “00000” as “The King’s Number”although (spoiler) it is not actually founded. Is 00000 played? Yeah. In the Christmas raffle they play 100,000 numbers different. From 00000 to 99,999. Both included. In fact, a quick search arrives to confirm that the first issue on the list has been sold this year in half a dozen of branches in Cádiz, Las Palmas, La Rioja, Valencia and Murcia. After all, there is nothing written about tastes (and superstitions): there are those who see 00000 as an ‘ugly’ number, a combination to avoid with little chance of receiving the jackpot, and those who bet their 20 euros on it as the winning horse. Have you ever played? No. Not at least if we’re talking about El Gordo or millionaire prizes, although that doesn’t make 00000 a special number either. Although the National Lottery traces its origins to 1812 (when the biggest prize amounted to 8,000 pesos) and the Christmas draw began to become popular 133 years agoin reality there are not so many numbers graced with El Gordo. That doesn’t mean that 00000 hasn’t made more than one person’s day (or Christmas). In 2014 he achieved a stones of 120 euros. It may not seem like a big deal, but that year the same administration in Logroño had sold 160 lucky tickets, leaving money in the pockets of its clients. 19,200 euros. In 1828 luck also happened to him. That year the lucky number was 00523. To many the figure may not be attractive because it is too ‘low’, but the truth is that the drums do not understand low or high numbers. Lotteries remember that Gordo touched figures between 0 and 10,000 61 times, 70 times to bills from 10,001 to 30,000 and 64 times to combinations ranging from 30,001 to 66,000. The King’s Number? One of the most famous myths about 00000 is that, precisely because it is the first in the numerical sequence, State Lotteries and Betting reserves a special destiny for it: a gift for the Royal House. You don’t have to look hard to find articles that remember a story that in reality is nothing more than that: a story, pure urban legend. “No. It is a baseless rumor. Institutionally, no tenth is given away,” they clarified already in 2011 from Lotteries to the newspaper ABC. It is not the only occasion in which he has had to deny the hoax. “No tenth with the number 00000 is given to the king for the Christmas draw,” insist to RTVE. The best proof is that the tenths of 00000 can be found in various administrations in the country and in 2014 the media even they interviewed to one of the winners with the 120 euro stone. Curiously, she decided to play that number and not another because she was convinced that it was the one they used in Zarzuela. Curious, commented… Feared? 00000 not only generates expectation for its history and myths. There is another detail that arouses the curiosity of Christmas Lottery lovers. In case he wins the first prize, if chance showers him with millions of euros… How the hell would it be sung? Would we hear the children of San Ildefonso hum “zero thousand zero hundred zero zero”? Would you opt for a simpler formula? theEconomist assures that 00000 would simply be sung as “zero”, without further flourishes. Although another thing (of course) is that their nerves play tricks on them on the 22nd. Images | SELAE 1 and 2 and Royal House In Xataka | ChatGPT You have the same chance of hitting the Lottery Jackpot as a witch reading the guts of a crow

what it is and everything you can do with this lottery application

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Let’s explain to you what it is and what you can do with TuLoteroone of the main applications for buy lottery and check lottery prizes, and even see which administrations have a specific number of a raffle, like the Christmas lottery. You can also buy your tickets digitally and collect them directly from it. Let’s start by briefly explaining what this application is and where it is available. Then, we will briefly describe all its functions so that you know if it is an app that suits you or interests you. What is TuLotero and how it works TuLotero is an application that is used to play various lottery games from your mobile in a simple way. In addition to that, it also helps you to check the results directly from your device. You can download it on Google Play for Android, in the AppGallery from Huawei or in the App Store of iPhone or iPad. It is a service in which you can register for free, and then the information about the lotteries you buy is kept saved in that account and centralized on all your devices. In addition, it has an interface adapted for each game, so that choosing numbers is an easy and almost native experience. One of the biggest advantages, which we will review later, is that the application allows you to buy lottery tickets directly from the administrationsyou can choose to have it sent to your home in exchange for paying shipping costs or to have it in digital format. It will also manage your prizes and allow you to collect them. In this sense, you will be able Add your real money to the app’s internal wallet to buy the tickets. And if you win a prize it will be added to your account, and you can decide whether to send it to your bank account or use it for new games throughout the year. Therefore, it is like a kind of hub or link between administrations to centralize the sales of lottery tickets and other draws. You buy from the administrations from the web, and in return you have a lot of room to find any number on this site without having to look between different pages. What we can do with TuLotero Let’s now explain to you what are the things you can do with this platform. Because it goes beyond being able to buy lottery numbers. You can also organize groups or collect some smaller prizes. Buy lottery online (and choose the number) The first thing you can do with this application is buy tickets for various lotteriesincluding the option to buy them completely online. Come on, you buy a number and it is linked to your account so you can later manage the charges if it’s your turn. These are the raffles you can participate in: Euromillions Primitive National Lottery Bonoloto Football pools The Fat Man Buy numbers with physical tickets You can also buy a physical ticket. When you look for a number, you will be able to see which administrations in Spain have it to ask them to send it to your home. These shipments have a surcharge of 6 additional euros for shipping costs. Know if a number has a prize You will also be able to check if a number has a prize. When a draw arrives, the number will remain in your account, and you will see if any of these numbers have any type of prize. In this regard, you can also add numbers that you have purchased elsewhere. You can add a physical number that you have at home and, although you will not be able to buy it if you did not buy it at TuLotero, you will receive a notification if you have a prize in it. Collect money from winning numbers You can collect the money for successful tickets in the appas long as you have purchased them through it. This money stays in your account, and you can decide to collect all or part of it. The money you keep in your account can be used to buy tickets for other draws. If you win a Lottery prize, regardless of whether it is a large or small prize, you can manage it automatically in TuLotero. If the prize is less than 2,000 euros you receive it directly in your account, and if it is higher, its Rewards Management department will contact you to guide you when collecting it at the bank. Organize groups You will also be able to organize or join groupslike clubs so that everyone can buy the same number in an organized way. This can be used for the lottery of the work company or a group of friends. You can also set up supporters groups. Is TuLotero reliable? Yeah, TuLotero is a secure website and that he has been practicing for years. Here, the page is associated with all the official administration networks, carrying out all the procedures through them. If you buy a ticket, you are buying it from an administration, and if you ask for it to be sent to you, you will receive it from them. And since the bets are processed directly in the official administrations of the State Lottery and Betting network, these They also manage the awards. Even prizes of more than 40,000 euros, which will be managed by the administration from which you purchased the prize to withhold 20% and make the money reach your account. In Xataka Basics | Christmas Lottery 2025: how to know which administration has a specific number

ChatGPT has the same chance of hitting the Lottery Jackpot as a witch reading the guts of a crow

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There are those who always play the same number. Others travel half of Spain looking for the combination they have dreamed of or simply a special date. This dance of fetishes related to the Extraordinary Christmas Lottery Draw is now added a new name: ChatGPT. And the question is not only whether artificial intelligence is capable of guessing the winning number, something that is obviously not possible. It goes much further than that: there is a lot of superstition in this, but also of believing at face value what the AI ​​tells us. Even when we know that there is nothing behind it to support its results. ChatGPT and the lottery. Christmas is coming and with it interest in the Lottery increases. And with it, an unexpected protagonist also emerges again: ChatGPT. The OpenAI ‘chatbot’ has become another Christmas classic thanks to the fact that, one more yearwe Spaniards ask you again what the winning number will be. The objective is clear: that ChatGPT deciphers the tenth that the Fat Man will win in the 2025 Christmas Lottery. Although only chance rules here. It doesn’t get wet. The Christmas Draw is carried out using a system of two drums, with a manual mechanism, in which all the balls are identical, both in weight and size, so that they have exactly the same chance of winning. The prize is drawn from the first pot and the number to which it is associated is drawn from the second pot. The procedure for drawing the balls is completely random and, therefore, so is the winning number. The chance of getting it right is 0.001%. If you have ever tried to ask ChatGPT what the Gordo will be on December 22, its answer is what it should be: If you insist, he also repeats the same thing: “I cannot tell you with certainty what the winning number of the Spanish Christmas Lottery will be. And in fact no one can. The draw is designed to be totally random; each number from 00000 to 99999 has the same probability of being awarded.” He is not trying to sell us the bike and makes it very clear why: “although there are those who try to use theories, superstitions or even artificial intelligence to predict numbers, these methods have no real foundation: in the end, each number still has exactly 1 in 100,000 probabilities.” Finish singing. But, if we try to scratch a little more, it ends up showing a random number. If you give it a ‘prompt’ asking for a number based on a mathematical sample or taking into account the history of winning combinations, ChatGPT tells us that “I can give you a simulated number as a result of a fictitious statistical sample, but you must be clear that it does not increase your probabilities nor does it represent a real prediction.” And then, what was expected, his bet. In this case, 32,704. Of course, by trying to ask the same question in several different conversations, each time it offers a different answer. The ending doesn’t even have to match. It’s a totally random answer again. The new search engines. Chatbots like ChatGPT or Gemini they are displacing search engines traditional when it comes to search for specific information on a topic or even a much longer explanation. Even Google itself he is taking it to the kitchen to change the way we interact with the internet. If before we asked Google what could be causing a headache or what could happen to us if we took an expired medication, now the quickest, simplest and most accessible way is to have a conversation with the AI ​​as a “know-it-all” to have the solution to all our questions and concerns. Even with those that have no answer, like Gordo’s winning number. A digital superstition. The infinite possibilities of AI are leading us to use it in quite peculiar ways. From have a romantic relationship with her until resorting to it to replace psychological therapy or even interact less with other humans. In the case of the lottery, just as there are gestures associated with good luck, such as passing the tenth over the belly of a pregnant woman or the figurine of a Virgin, asking ChatGPT to choose a number for us is a new digital superstition. Another space to which we have also opened the door to artificial intelligence, “just in case” is right. Cover image | Generated with Gemini In Xataka | We have become filled with digital superstitions. They are a horror for our productivity In Xataka | ChatGPT and the Christmas Lottery: what you can do with artificial intelligence and how to ask it for a prediction

A group of young people has become Milmillonario in less than three years: their lottery ticket is called Ia

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Artificial intelligence is starring An economic revolution unprecedented that is generating one of the greatest jumps In wealth creation In recent history, something that Such and as stood out Bloomberg, The exponential growth of this developing sector has resulted in the accelerated appearance of New billionaires. Most of them are young entrepreneurs who have seen His fortunes multiply Thanks to the assessment of their AI companies for risk capital investors. A magnet for investments Andrew Mcafee, MIT principal researcher, pointed to CNBC that this generation of wealth “is not preceded” in the last 100 years of which there are records. In Xataka Jensen Huang presumes more than chips for AI: he has created more billionaires than any other CEO According to data of CB InsightsThere are 498 companies dedicated to AI with valuations above 1,000 million dollars and more than 1,300 startups valued at more than 100 million dollars. Estimates From the study they set that, together, these companies have a value of 2.7 billion dollars. The most curious thing is that, at least 100 of those unicorns of more than 100 million dollars were founded after 2023, which makes the phenomenon even more striking for its effervescence. This AI boom has become An economic engine which already exceeds the investments generated by other technological revolutions such as Internet, electronic commerce or social networks, whose companies are also betting strongly on AI. However, unlike what happened with the Puntocom at the beginning of 2000. Companies that are providing huge fortunes to their founders are not public contributions, but are maintained as main source of wealth for Its founders and managers for maintaining greater control over your participation percentage. In Xataka In silence, the engineers specialized in AI are becoming the best paid workers in history THE NEW MAIN VETA TO MAKE MILLIONARY In the last decade, social networks or the different electronic commerce formulas marked the pattern as the main ways of creating millionaire fortunes. They abound The examples In the current list of millionaires with names such as Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg. However, now it is the AI ​​who is rapidly replacing these sectors as the fastest source for generating a substantial fortune. According The published By Bloomberg, the development of AI has led to the raising of at least 15 Milmillonarios entrepreneurs, with a combined heritage of 38,000 million dollars. Companies such as Anthropic, Openai, Safe Superintelligence or Anysphere have starred in millionaire financing that have led their founders to reach fortunes of more than 1,000 million dollars in a very short time. A remarkable example is Anthropic, which negotiates an investment round that could place its valuation at 170,000 million dollars, almost tripling its value in a few months. Openai, has become the startup with greater assessment reaching 500,000 million dollars in its last investment round. The previous one stayed at 300,000 million, which leaves an idea of ​​the speed of Growth of these companiesand with them, the fortunes of its founders. {“videoid”: “x8jpy2b”, “Autoplay”: fals, “title”: “What is behind it like chatgpt, dall-e or midjourney? | artificial intelligence”, “tag”: “Webedia-prod”, “Duration”: “1173”} Alexandr Wangco -founder and exco from the startup Scale AI, he became at 28 years the youngest billionaire in history, with an estimated fortune at approximately 3.6 billion dollars. Wang is just one of the many young entrepreneurs converted into millionaires that have emerged from this booming industry. Lucy Guoco -founder of Scale AI with Wang, and now the leader of Passes, is also part of this elite with a fortune that exceeded 1,000 million dollars. Other outstanding names include Dario Amodei, co -founder of Anthropic, with more than 1.2 billion dollars in wealth, and Michael Intora, CEO and co -founder of Coreweave, valued at 10,000 million, as well as Michael Tuelll of Anysphere and Brett Adcock, founder of Figure AI, whose company is valued at more than 39,500 million dollars. In Xataka | “I don’t believe in billionaires.” Image | Scale ai, LinkedIn, Wikimedia Commons (Function () {Window._js_modules = Window._js_modules || {}; var headelement = document.getelegsbytagname (‘head’) (0); if (_js_modules.instagram) {var instagramscript = Document.Createlement (‘script’); }}) (); – The news A group of young people has become Milmillonario in less than three years: their lottery ticket is called Ia It was originally posted in Xataka by Rubén Andrés .

It is more likely to reach a ray to touch your lottery. Until an economist broke the game winning 14 times

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The lottery is more an act of faith than anything else. I don’t say it, Mathematics say. In fact, there is more likely to be a ray to become a millionaire at night. It is possible that all that of the same, and that even knowing that we will not touch us, let’s continue playing to feel part of something. The problem is that there are legends that They talk about tricks and Formulas To win. And then there is the story of Stefan Mandel. A mathematical mind. In the mid-1990s, while millions of people worldwide continue Murify the rules Not written from the lottery applying, not magic or superstition, but an elementary probability system and a colossal logistics. The “trick.” His formula was as basic as radical: identify those draws in which the accumulated prize It exceeded by far the total cost of acquiring all possible tickets. By converting a problem of chance into a mathematical operation with a positive statistical return, Mandel transformed the game into a profitability equation. After successfully trying his system in his native Romania and then in Australia, Mandel perfected his strategy With a small team, developing algorithms that generated and printed millions of valid combinations for specific lotteries. The jump to Washington. The high point of his odyssey came when he looked at the United States, where he detected that Virginia’s newly established lottery used only 44 numbersgenerating “barely” 7,059,052 possible combinations. With the boat reaching 15.5 million dollars, and after having prepared in advance A network of investorsprinters and points of sale, Mandel activated his machinery. For two frantic days, his team managed to buy 6.4 million tickets. They did not reach the desired total, but among the paper mountain was the winning ticket. Although the feat unleashed an investigation by the FBI and the CIA, no legal violation was detected: its maneuver, although clearly outside the spirit of the game, it did not transgress any norm written in the regulations in force. The boundaries of chance. The key to the mandel method was not in sophisticated numerical tricks, but to detect when the conditions of the game offered A structural advantage. In this way, its formula only worked when the prize I tripled the cost To acquire all combinations and when lottery systems allowed printing tickets directly with chosen combinations, a possibility that was later prohibited in many countries precisely by cases such as yours. Winning horse. In essence, its strategy converted the lottery into A safe betprovided that resources, time and discipline were available to execute a plan of such magnitude. However, the profit margin was not immediate: Mandel had to distribute the profits between dozens of investors and assume considerable operational and legal costs. Even so, the system allowed him Win 14 lotteries over several years and knead a considerable fortune without resorting to traps or privileged contacts, only to applied mathematics with implacable determination. Legacy and sunset. After his last significant victory, Mandel He retired to a paradise in the Vanuatu Islands, where he lives away from media foci. Its history, however, not only challenges the myth of fate in games of chance, but has become A mathematical legend which highlights the design gaps of many lottery systems before digitalization. Today, with stricter regulations, limits in the purchase of tickets and automated systems, replicate its model It would be unfeasible. Thus, its feat remains one of the most forceful demonstrations of how human ingenuity, when it faces in intelligence and rigor, can alter the balance of the improbable. Image | Barcex In Xataka | We all know that the lottery will not touch us. It doesn’t matter: we play for feeling part of something In Xataka | The trick to prevent the Treasury from staying with 20% of the Lottery Award has a trick. And is called the income statement

The European space agency begins to limit when the Soviet ship will fall. Where is it a lottery

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Like some people, there are spacecraft that say goodbye giving the note. The Kosmos 482 Soviet Missionlaunched 53 years ago with the failed objective of reaching Venus, is about to star in one of the most unpredictable atmospheric resentments of recent times. The European Space Agency is following her live. The last prediction. According to the ESA Space Waste Officethe capsule will fall to Earth tomorrow, on Saturday, May 10, 2025, at 08:16 UTC (10:12 in Spain). Although it has been reducing, the uncertainty window remains quite wide, with an error of +/- 8.61 hours. This means that the exact moment and the location can still vary (for now only latitudes above and below the 50º are discarded), but the predictions are noted as the object approaches. A capsule of the Cold War. Throwed on March 31, 1972, the Kosmos 482 ship was a twin sister of the successful Venera 8 mission, which did perch on Venus. However, a failure in the upper stage of the Molniya rocket that transported it prevented that it escaped the earth’s gravity, leaving it in an elliptical orbit with the earth all this time. What makes this event special is not only the longevity of the capsule, but the fact that it was built to survive the infernal conditions of Venus: surface temperatures of 464 ° C, pressures of 100 atmospheres and accelerations of up to 300 g. I could survive the reentry. What remains of the ship, the descent capsule of half a meter in diameter and 495 kg, was designed to support the extreme conditions of the Venusian atmosphere, so there is possibilities that it reaches intact to the surface of the earth. To survive, the impact could occur at about 240 km/h, with a kinetic energy similar to that of a 40-55 cm meteor. The big question is whether the parachute system, after 53 years and with exhausted batteries, could work. In view of telescope, the object seems to be tumbos. Prediction map on the reentry of the Soviet probe Kosmos 482. Image: that Do not panic. Taking into account that most of the planet is water, the risk of causing personal damage is “extremely remote.” And the probability of reaching a person is even lower, from 1 between 100,000 million, according to ESA. To put it in perspective, it is about 65,000 times more likely to be reached by lightning In addition, being an object that probably arrives as one piece, the risks are concentrated and therefore are lower than those created by the reentry of a rocket, which disperses multiple objects of metric size over a large area. Let’s take advantage of science. The almost spherical and smooth form of the Kosmos 482 makes it an ideal object to measure atmospheric density into very low orbits. Every time its elliptical orbit passes through perigee (the point closest to Earth), loses height due to atmospheric drag. This “accidental experiment”, which is being registered live by ESA, will provide valuable data on this type of event so far of the reentry. Perhaps a cold war ship shows us some lesson on how to reduce the problem of space garbage. Images | THAT In Xataka | There is an old Soviet probe about to fall on earth. The disturbing thing is that it was designed to resist hell

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