Mystery Albox player wins €107,334 on the Eurojackpot

A single Eurojackpot ticket sold in Albox matched all five main numbers in Tuesday’s draw, and it was the only one in Spain to do so. It fell just two bonus numbers short of a €120 million jackpot, and the person holding it still hasn’t come forward.

One ticket in all of Spain matched the five numbers

The winning ticket was sold in the Almanzora valley town by Manuel Lázaro, who has been selling for ONCE (Spain’s national organisation for blind people, whose street sellers sell its lottery tickets) since 2011. Tuesday October 6’s draw came out as 7, 12, 19, 28 and 50, and the Albox ticket had every one of them. That’s a third-category prize worth €107,334.30.

Sixteen tickets across Europe hit that same tier on Tuesday night. However, according to ONCE’s official results, the one sold in Albox was the only one in Spain.

Two ‘suns’ away from €120 million

Eurojackpot players pick five numbers from one to 50, then two more from one to 12, which ONCE calls ‘soles’ (suns, the game’s bonus numbers). Tuesday’s suns were one and six, and the Albox ticket didn’t have either. Had it matched those two as well, it would’ve scooped the €120 million jackpot, the maximum the lottery can reach.

The draw takes place every Tuesday and Friday, and ONCE sells it in Spain alongside lotteries in 18 other European countries, so every ticket is up against millions of others across the continent.

The seller is now looking for the winner

So far, nobody has been identified as the ticket holder, and Lázaro is now trying to track down whoever bought it from him. He said he’s “very proud to be able to help”. Sellers elsewhere in Andalucía have had similar weeks recently too, with one in Estepona left searching for the buyer of a €500,000 coupon in July and a Torre del Mar seller handing out €1.235 million in prizes in September.

Albox is home to a large British community as well as long-standing local families, so the winner could just as easily be a Brit who’s made the area home as a lifelong ‘Albojense.’

How much of the €107,334 the winner actually keeps

Lottery prizes in Spain aren’t completely tax-free. The first €40,000 of a prize is exempt, but a special 20 per cent tax is taken off everything above that before the money is paid out.

On a prize of €107,334.30, that means roughly €13,467 goes to Hacienda (the Spanish tax agency), leaving the winner with about €93,867. Still an incredible sum for a single ticket, and a very welcome one with Christmas not far away.

So anyone who bought a Eurojackpot ticket in Albox for Tuesday’s draw should dig it out and check it against the numbers as soon as possible, as no one has yet come forward with the winning ticket. The €120 million jackpot rolls over again to the Friday October 9’s draw.