A man shows his tickets as he attends the draw of Spain's Christmas lottery named 'El Gordo' (The Fat One) at the Teatro Real in Madrid, on December 22, 2015.

Spaniards are hoping for an earlier Christmas present Thursday as they could win a share of 2.3 billion euros ($2.4 billion) from the world's biggest lottery.



According to El Pais, nearly 74 percent of Spain's population took a chance on "El Gordo" last year in what's considered to be more than just a lottery.

"It's a social tradition at a price more or less accessible for the majority of pockets," the Spanish newspaper said. It added that 89 percent of the Spaniards play as a habit without questioning the very little probability (0.001 percent) of getting the biggest prize.

The top individual prize in this Christmas tradition is worth 4 million euros and there are more than 14,000 prizes to be won.

The draw begins at 8 am London time with the transmission on the Spanish public television TVE. Last year, the draw lasted for four hours. The final list of prizes is published at 5pm London time.