The non-payment of winning Christmas Lottery shares has ended up under investigation in Biscay after dozens of affected individuals reported not having collected the money corresponding to a winning number in the extraordinary 2025 draw.
The case focuses on the rugby club Arratiko Zekorrak, from Igorre, which had distributed tickets linked to the number 90,693, awarded the third prize in the Christmas Lottery. The Ertzaintza maintains an open investigation following complaints filed by various affected parties.
According to information confirmed by the Basque Department of Security and collected by several media outlets, the problem arose after the club sold more winning shares than it could cover with the tickets actually drawn in the lottery.
The club admits an "error"
The president of the club, Unai Zuloaga, publicly acknowledged that there was an “error” in the control of the distributed participations. The club itself has also admitted that the available money is not enough to pay all the winning tickets claimed by the buyers.
The figures published so far indicate that the club had acquired 285 winning tickets, although more shares associated with those numbers would have been distributed. Different media outlets place the outstanding payment amount at more than two million euros.
The investigation opened by the Ertzaintza now attempts to clarify how the distribution of the shares occurred and how many ballots ultimately remained without sufficient economic coverage to be paid.
Dozens of complaints from those affected
The complaints began to be filed after several buyers tried to cash in their shares and discovered that they could not receive the money corresponding to the prize.
The case has generated great repercussion in Euskadi and has recalled other similar episodes related to lottery participations sold by associations or entities that later could not face all the payments.
For the moment, the police investigation remains open and the authorities have not reported possible charges or judicial decisions related to the case.
The affected number is 90,693, awarded the third prize in the 2025 Christmas Lottery Extraordinary Draw. Each tenth was awarded 500,000 euros per series, according to the official draw result released by Loterías y Apuestas del Estado.
The case has also recalled what happened a few months ago in Villamanín, in León, where a millionaire conflict also arose after it was detected that several tickets for the Christmas Lottery's top prize had been sold without a corresponding ticket. In that municipality, the tension between neighbors forced a meeting of almost four hours to try to reach an agreement that would avoid ending up in court. Finally, the festival committee assumed part of the pending money and the rest was covered by proportional contributions from the winners themselves.