The Lottery and the Napoleonic invasion

At the start of the Peninsular War, there were two lottteries on the Peninsula: that of José Napoleón, operated from Madrid, and that of the Government of Cádiz. The anti-Napoleonic side held its first draw in Seville in 1809. Starting the next year and until the end of the war, the draws were held in Cádiz, with a few exceptions.

In 1808, they were held in Valencia, then moved to Madrid because of the war, and in 1810 they returned to Valencia. The Junta Superior de Defensa del Reino (Superior Defence Board of the Kingdom) decided that 3,000 Spanish reales de vellón would be taken from the profits obtained from each draw to grant various dowries to poor maidens, orphans of parents who had died on the frontline. After the takeover of this city in 1812, French Marshall Suchet arranged that the Lottery draws be governed once again in accordance with the old laws, and the new government promised to guarantee both the draws and the payments.

On 23 April 1812, the French held their first draw in Valencia. It took place at the Casa de la Audiencia (Courthouse), where they continued to be held until 1 July 1813. Four days after this date, Suchet and his troops had to retreat to France. With the country free of the Napoleonic troops, the draws returned to Madrid and in the subsequent months, the sale of the Lotería Nacional was extended to the entire peninsula. The two lotteries, La Primitiva and Lotería Nacional, operated until 1862.

The Lottery and the Civil War

More than a century later, in 1935, lottery sales signified 1.1% of Spain's Gross Domestic Product, which was equivalent to 3% of the State's total revenue, quite a significant amount. That is why, just as during the Peninsular War in the 19th century, every sector operated its own lottery.

When the Spanish War of 1936-1939 began, the Lotería Nacional suffered the consequences of the armed conflict. It adapted to these consequences, and in accordance with how the war was unfolding, it held draws in various capital cities: Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona, within the Republican Zone, and Seville and Burgos in what was then called the ⿿Nationalist Zone⿝.

The Tax Authority, also torn in two, invented mechanical instruments so that the draws could still be held, distributing luck in the two fighting sectors during the unfortunate years of the conflict.

The curious thing is that the two had the same name: ⿿Lotería Nacional" (National Lottery). There were several reasons for this:

• The Lottery tickets of the draws held after 18 July 1936 were already printed and distributed. Thus, changing the name did not make much financial sense.


• It wasn't advisable in political terms either, since a name change could be understood as a form of recognition to the other.


• In addition, the term "national⿝ in the lottery's name originally had progressive connotations, since that is what the first draw held in Cádiz in 1812 was named in order to emphasise that it was not "royal" (of the king), but rather of the people.

The Republican Lottery

The vicissitudes of the Republican Lotería Nacional faithfully reflected the government's determination and efforts to avoid, or at least to delay, what in the end was inevitable. When the war broke out, the draws' plans had to be quickly revamped, due to the amount of refunds for unsold or confiscated tickets in the National sector. Nevertheless, the draw calendar set prior to the start of the war was still observed.

The Lotería Nacional continued operating as normal in Madrid until, at the beginning of November 1936, faced with the possibility of the city's fall into the hands of Franco, the Republican government, together with the Loterías staff, decided to move to Valencia, where the draws were resumed. There the three monthly draws continued, with one exception: the Extraordinary Draw to benefit the Spanish Red Cross, which should have been held in Madrid on 14 October 1936, was postponed because of low sales figures, and was held in Valencia instead on 14 January 1937. That year, the government held three monthly draws, except in January, when it held four (the one for the Red Cross). However, the war's progress, that in addition to a loss of territory also entailed great mistrust in the currency's value, made it necessary to readjust the value of the issue. Thus, if in 1936 the issue of the Christmas Draw totalled 144 million pesetas, in 1937 it only reached close to nine million.

In Valencia, the draws were held in a large industrial warehouse, an old board storage area located on Calle Troya, which could hold 2,000 people. For the Christmas Lottery held on 22 December 1936, a marquee was made with a red banner, flanked by the Republican flag and the Valencian senyera flag. During that lottery, the drums from Madrid were used and children from the Imperial School of San Vicente Ferrer called out the numbers.

From December 1937 to January 1939, the draws were held in Barcelona. The first coincided with the Extraordinary Christmas Lottery and took place in the former Lyon d⿿Or, an irregularly-shaped space in which the presiding table was located at the entrance. The drums from Madrid were also used. The children from the social boarding house, 'Casa de Asistencia Social President Maciá', called out the numbers.

The last draw in Barcelona was held on 21 January 1939, five days before the entry of Franco's troops, and its prize list was never published. The draw that was to take place on 1 February was not held either.

During the war (from November 1936 to January 1939) the services of the Lotería Nacional in the Republican Zone reported to the Directorate General of the Treasury and Insurance. Since the area for Lottery sales was limited due to the country's division, all the draws for this Lottery were small, mostly just one series.

Consolation prizes

There were numbers, like 16,244 and 16,807, that won prizes in the same year in both sectors. On 1 March 1938 during the lottery held in Barcelona (Republican zone), 16,244 won the third prize of 20,000 pesetas, which remained in that city. And on 21 November 1938 during the lottery held in Burgos, that same number won the second prize of 90,000 pesetas in Zaragoza.

On 2 May 1938, 16,807 won the third prize in the lottery held in Barcelona, with the 20,000 pesetas going to Madrid. This number also won the fourth prize during the lottery held in Burgos (Franco-held area) on 1 July of that same year; the 40,000 pesetas went to the town of Pizarra in the province of Málaga.

La Lotería en la zona franquista

La historia de la Lotería Nacional en el bando franquista presenta la otra cara de la moneda, pues si al principio los republicanos tenían todo a su favor para sacar adelante su Lotería, en el otro sector la situación era más caótica.

Tras el levantamiento de julio de 1936, en muchos lugares donde triunfó la sublevación se organizaron rifas en beneficio de los combatientes. La improvisación y falta de control sobre estas rifas generaron un malestar entre las autoridades, que pronto intentaron regularlas, cuando no prohibirlas. Una forma de controlar estas actividades era la de promover grandes rifas con sorteos periódicos y bajo la supervisión de los militares. Entre éstas, quizá las más relevantes fueron la Lotería Patriótica de Zaragoza, de la que era responsable la Junta Recaudatoria Civil de Defensa Nacional de aquella ciudad, y la Lotería Patriótica de Sevilla, organizada por la Junta Municipal de Subsidios, cuyo último sorteo se celebró el 21 de abril de 1938.

En el caso de esta última, se celebró el 21 de diciembre de 1936 en el salón de actos de la Cámara de Comercio. El Ayuntamiento de Sevilla y la Junta de Obras del Puerto facilitaron los elementos que se empleaban, con lo que el sorteo pudo contar con dos bombos; debido al tamaño de los mismos se tuvo que arbitrar un procedimiento de extracción de bolas especial.

En una esfera se colocaron 20 bolas numeradas del 1 al 19 y otra bola con dos ceros, y en la otra 999 bolas numeradas del 1 al 999 y otra bola de tres ceros. Sacando una bola de la primera esfera y otra de la segunda, y uniendo las dos cifras se obtenía el número premiado, pues la combinación comprendía la totalidad de los 20.000 números que integraban el sorteo. Los números premiados lo fueron por orden de salida, y las bolas las cantaron los niños del Hospicio Provincial.

A fin de maximizar los beneficios con la sustitución de las pequeñas rifas locales por un sorteo de carácter nacional, el 13 de diciembre de 1937 se aprobó el restablecimiento de la Lotería Nacional. El primer sorteo estuvo constituido por dos series de 46.000 billetes cada una, al precio de 30 pesetas el billete, y se celebró el 1 de abril del año siguiente en Burgos, en el edificio del Colegio de los Hermanos Maristas.

Para el acto se utilizaron los bombos que usaba la Diputación de Guipúzcoa para los sorteos de amortización de la deuda, mientras que los billetes se imprimían en una empresa de artes gráficas de Bilbao. Los niños que ayudaron en la celebración eran internos del Hospicio Provincial y de la Casa Refugio Municipal de la ciudad.

En estas condiciones se celebraron en Burgos más de setenta sorteos hasta agosto de 1939, fecha en que volvieron a celebrarse en Madrid. El primero que se desarrolló con total normalidad se realizó en Madrid el 1 de agosto, con la curiosa peculiaridad de que los billetes, que se habían confeccionado con antelación, señalaban aún Burgos para su celebración .

*Información extraída de Boletín LAE.