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Loteria Spanish Bingo

Loteria Mexican Bingo Game Kit - Loteria Mexicana Bingo Game for 20 Players - Includes 1 Deck of Cards and Boards - with 100 Bingo Chips - for The Entire Family - Great for Learning Spanish. Jun 10, 2017 - This game was inspired by a traditional Mexican game. It's like a bingo game but it uses images instead of numbers. This set includes 24 playing boards (tablas) and 54 calling cards. Perfect for cinco de mayo and parties and Spanish clubs.

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Our Jumbo Loteria Bingo is an absolute must-have for your Fiesta or Cinco de Mayo celebration. This game is a festive, Mexican iteration of classic bingo. Each bingo card features colorful drawings and their corresponding Spanish names. This Loteria Bingo is the perfect activity for a party, or the classroom. American Bingo Board and Mexican Loteria Tabla The game is very similar to American Bingo, with some differences. In Bingo, a number with an associated letter is randomly chosen from a rotating drum, while in Loteria, with a colorfully illustrated image is drawn from a special deck of 54 cards. Loteria Kids, Bingo for Kids or Mexican Bingo for kids (Spanish Edition) Colorful images specially designed for kids It is specially designed to be friendly, atractive and easy to identify the differents images. Each package has 10 boards and a deck with 54 cards.

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LA LOTERIA


You will probably have seen the street sellers of lottery tickets in all town centres. They usually have some sort of physical disability and either sit themselves on a street bench waiting for customers, or canvas the Canarian bars.

Generally, they are selling the tickets for the game known as ONCE. This is not the English word, but is pronounced ON-say.

ONCE is only one of the selection of games available in La Loteria. If you want to indulge in any of the others, you need to go to a betting shop, a lottery kiosk, or purchase tickets online.

Anyway, here's the full list of available games.





La Loteria: El Gordo

Meaning 'the fat one' in Spanish, this lottery game is so-called because of the size of its prizes. The full name is El Gordo de Navidad. It is, however, still only a nickname. The official name is Lotería de Navidad and is the oldest of the Spanish lotteries, being in operation since 1892. Even though tickets are on sale from July onwards, it is in the run-up to Christmas that the rush is on to purchase tickets.

The draw is made each year on December 22nd. This is the only remaining Spanish lottery draw that uses the 'two-vessel system'. They are spherical, one large, one small. The larger one contains getting on for 100,000 small wooden balls, each marked with a unique 5-digit number. The other sphere contains another 1787 balls, 1774 with small cash prizes, the other nine with the big ones. The majority of small prize balls are nicknamed la pedrea, or 'the pebble avalanche'.

The draw is made by taking, one at a time, a ball from each sphere. Whatever ticket number is drawn, it wins the prize on the other ball. The draw continues until all 1787 balls have been picked from the sphere and, therefore, the whole thing takes about three hours. Picking the balls from the spheres is traditionally done by children from the San Ildefonso school, which is an exclusive boarding school and the oldest in Madrid.

The children actually sing the results! The programme, understandably, is one of the most watched events in the Spanish television year.

Tickets are sold in ten parts, called décimos. The price is around 20 euros. A full ticket, called a billete, is therefore 200 euros. Because that's a touch expensive for the average person, many syndicates are formed for the big event.

In 2009, the first prize was 3,000,000 euros and the second was 1,000,000. All the 1774 winning balls drawn in La Pedrea received 1,000 euros.


La Loteria: El Gordo de la Primitiva

El Gordo de la Primitiva, or 'the fat one of the primitive lottery' is another one of the Spanish state lotteries and a watered down version of the big Christmas El Gordo, played every week.

There are two grids on the tickets - numbered 1-54 and 1-9. You pick five numbers from the first and one from the second. Each grid costs 1.50 euros and draws are held every Saturday.

It is possible to play as part of a club, or peña, where you can have 133 combinations for 5.95 euros.


La Loteria: La Primitiva

La Primitiva, or 'The Primitive', operating since the mid-80s, is generally regarded as Spain's favourite lottery. You purchase your ticket from one of the many official outlets and you choose six out of the 49 numbers. You can elect to have a computer randomly select them. For the numbers to be valid for one day, the cost is 1.17 euros; for two days, the price rises to 2.35 euros.

PrintableLoteria

Again, you can also play as part of a club, offering 182 combinations for 5.95 euros.

The draw takes place every Thursday and Sunday. If you have all six matching numbers, you've won the jackpot. This can be as high as 66 million euros! For matching fewer numbers, there are smaller prizes.


Lotería Nacional

The Lotería Nacional, or National Lottery, is also a state lottery, with tax exemption for the winners. There is a rule, however. Any money won on this lottery must remain on Spanish territory. If you take it out of the country, you'll be liable to tax.

When you buy a ticket, you don't chose the numbers. Like El Gordo de Navidad, the numbers are already automatically printed on the ticket.

All six numbers win you the jackpot. If you match the last two, you'll receive a smaller cash prize. Match the last number and you get the price of your ticket refunded.

Also, like El Gordo tickets are sold in tenths (décimos), for 20 euros.


La Loteria: Bonoloto

With tickets costing just 59 centimos, this is the cheapest way to play the lottery. The draw takes place Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. You can either choose the day your numbers are drawn, or have the numbers apply to each of the four days. This will coast 2.37 euros.

It's similar to the Primitiva, in that you select six numbers from 49. The good thing with the Bonoloto is the fact that it's drawn more often, giving you a greater chance of winning. This is counterbalanced by the fact that, as the tickets are so cheap, many more people play this game.


La Loteria: ONCE

The name for this game is not the English word 'once'. Nor is it the Spanish word, which means 'eleven'. It is, in fact an acronym, standing forOrganización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles, or 'National Organisation of Blind Spaniards'.

It is a charity, running a daily lottery draw and tickets are sold by members of the organisation, from kiosks or on street corners. Sometimes they canvas the local Tenerife bars and, most often, are disabled in some way.

The tickets for Monday through Thursday and Saturday are 1.50 euros, but the Friday and Sunday tickets are 2.50, owing to the bigger prize on offer.

Spanish Bingo Loteria Printable

Each day, there are five, pre-selected numbers, with three of them in a series. If you match just the last number, you get 2.50 euros. If you match all five, plus the three in the series, you win 300,000 euros. All combinations in between win smaller prizes.

Larger cash prizes have to be collected from the Bank of Spain, but smaller winnings can be claimed at the ONCE kiosks.




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Photo showing how Loteria was created by Clemente Jacques, known as the Mexican lottery, became popular culture around 1945-1950. Casasola Archive. Collection: © 172058SC.INAH.FN.

You may be surprised to know that the quintessential Mexican game called La Lotería has its origins in Europe and came to Mexico by way of Spain.

The traditional Loteria originated in Italy, moved to Spain, and finally came to Mexico in 1769. Initially played by the colonial Mexican elite, it eventually was embraced by all social classes.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Mexican farms and towns were few and far between. Traveling Ferias (fairs) would set up in these ranchlands and small towns on the weekends, and many people would go out to them especially to play Loteria.

The game is very similar to American Bingo, with some differences. In Bingo, a number with an associated letter is randomly chosen from a rotating drum, while in Loteria, with a colorfully illustrated image is drawn from a special deck of 54 cards. The modern versions of these cards also contain the name of the image at the bottom and an associated number at the top. In both games, each player has a different game board/tabla. In Bingo, the game board has random numbers listed under their associated letters, while in Loteria, the tabla has a random pattern of images matching those found on the cards.

Loteria Mexican Bingo Online

Tabla de Loteria, watercolor on paper Mexico c.1920 Collection of San Antonio Museum of Art

Many of the older tablas do not have words or numbers, since the originally was found in prose. These tablas were made either out of tin or paper that had been painted by popular artists, some of whom specialized in this art form.

Lotería is often referred to as “Mexican Bingo.” For anyone who has had the opportunity to play Lotería, will find similarities in playing American Bingo. However, players will quickly realize, how much more visually and intellectually engaging and fun it is to play Lotería than the American Bingo game. In American Bingo, an announcer calls out the selected letters and numbers, such as “B-4” and the players mark their game boards accordingly.

In Lotería, the announcer gives an improvised short poem or familiar phrase alluding to the image on the card (e.g. “The coat for the poor” for the image of the sun, or “The one who dies by the mouth” for the image of the fish). Each player uses a chip -often a kernel of corn or a bean-to mark the corresponding spot on his or her tabla. In either game, the first player to appropriately fill the game board or tabla in a predefined pattern will shout either “Bingo!”or “Lotería!” to win the game and receive the prize.

Since poetic license is afforded to the announcer of Lotería, the success and popularity of the announcer depend on his cleverness and style.

El Sol and El Pescado Loteria Cards. Images ©unknown (but I suspect they belong to Don Clemente Gallo)

The announcer’s approach will often depend on the social context in which the game is being played. At a church bazaar, for example, he might use a more tame humor, while for a game played in an adult setting he might use innuendos that are more risqué and derisive. Satire and references to contemporary events and politics are often a part of the word play involved; in fact, the linking of images to social commentary has existed since the inception of the game.

Loteria has been played as a game of chance, as a pastime, and for educational purposes. Because the Loteria cards include the name of the pictured character, they are used to teach reading, writing, history, and social values. Many bilingual teachers use the game as a teaching tool in the United States.

Loteria Spanish Bingo

Loteria Mexican Bingo Game Online

One of the more interesting historical versions was an educational , liturgical Loteria that appeared in the 1930’s. The images employed were objects and concepts found with the Catholic Church. This combination of the irreverence and banality of the game coupled with the solemnity of sacred symbols had some Catholics concerned. While the marriage of church and gambling in the form of Bingo in the United States is common, the initial attempt of the church-sanctioned liturgical loteria was more educational –to allow the parishioners to differentiate between a tunic and a maniple, for example.

Mexican bingo loteria

Eccleastic Loteria image use by permission from private Collection of Carlos Monsavais

The most recognized version of Loteria is the “Don Clemente Gallo” rendition introduced into Mexico in 1887 by the French businessman, Don Clemente Jacques.

He purchased a manufacturing plant in Mexico to produce many items, including packaged food products, corks and bottles, and ammunition. In their printing press division they produced labels for the packaged foods, advertisements, invitations, party favors, calendars and the game La Loteria.

It was told to me by Gallo that when they packaged the canned food for the military rations they included a little game of Loteria for the soldiers to play to pass the time. When the soldiers would bring home the game to their families it was a big hit and became hugely popular with the general public thus creating a big demand and embraced fully within the Mexican culture.

The owners today of of Don Clemente Gallo Pasatiempos own the registered trademark of the original images, including the most famous and better known images that have existed.

As Mexican culture spread across the border, so did the demand for the game within the United States. The original Don Clemente Gallo Loteria game can be purchased today not only in Mexico but also in the United States, and online all over the internet. Many collectors have been purchasing and sharing them online, perpetuating the love of Loteria and the cultural significance and historical value of this game.

2001 Both Loteria game sets published and produced by Don Clemente Gallo. The Nuevo Loteria game set are images by American artist Teresa Villegas.

Artists have been inspired by the images of Lotería since its inception and is not a unique occurrence. I was one of many artists who were inspired by the imagery of the game, the enthusiasm of the players and by the announcers who were gifted poets and wordsmiths.

While living in Mexico (2000) it was in the research, for my installation paintings that I first interviewed Gallo. Gallo was very generous with giving their time, historical facts and information for the development of this work. While meeting with Gallo, they had asked to see my paintings and so I had shown them a few sample paintings and the sketches for the remaining. They had liked what they saw and asked if they could use my images for publishing and distributing a new version of their game. They were excited at the thought of “sprucing up” the 100-year-old game, and I was excited too and thus the “Nuevo Versión” Lotería game was born.

Gallo produced and distributed it throughout Mexico and the US from 2001-2008. During the initial process of publishing this nuevo Loteria game, Gallo had offered me to have a higher end printing of the game than the original game. However, I wanted to keep with the historical intent when Lotería first came to Mexico for the purpose of soldiers’ passing the time, and to keep it affordable and available “for the masses.” Therefore the printing quality and the retail prices remained the same as the original lotería game. The royalties I received from Gallo, I donated back to Mexico to FAI Save the Children Foundation, Mexico.

Loteria Bingo Cards

In 2008, as did many businesses, Gallo cut back the production of many of their products because of the global economic recession, thus ending the production and distribution of el “Nuevo Verisión de Lotería.” Copyright for these Nuevo Loteria images now remain with me as my contract with Gallo has expired. For any of you who have purchased this version, you now have a “collectors item” and I hope you play it until it falls apart like my family’s has. And because I truly believe that “the experience is better than the artifact.”.