Saturnino García Pereda, a butcher from Santander, was the first millionaire in La Quiniela tickets in Spain.
On the lottery day of March 16, 1950, Saturnino García Pereda, a butcher from Santander, became the first millionaire of this popular sports betting game. There had been other unique winners of the 14 results that then made up the 1X2 tickets, but none had exceeded one million pesetas, at that time that amount of money did make the holder of a prize of these characteristics a millionaire, and by far. The prize that corresponded to the popular Cantabrian butcher amounted to 1,143,000 pesetas of the time, which, taking into account the evolution of prices, could be equivalent to five or six million euros today, at a time when money had much more value.
Unlike today, when virtually all new millionaires remain anonymous, Saturnino García Pereda, "Nino," as he was known, gave interviews to newspapers and radio stations of the time, and his image appeared on the pages of the newspapers. The man didn't have grand ambitions either, as he aspired to modernize his business, create more jobs, and establish one of the best butcher shops in Spain. However, Saturnino was an avid bettor on lottery tickets, filling out five tickets every week and carefully considering the predictions for the different matches included in the tickets. As if that weren't enough, the man was enjoying a lucky streak, having won 75,000 pesetas in the 1949 Christmas Lottery, which was a very large sum, but nothing compared to the million-plus he had earned from the football results. The name of this Cantabrian has gone down in the annals of lottery betting as the first millionaire in the history of La Quiniela, a simple man who only aspired to modernize his business.
Tickets from the time.
