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Spain’s Problem Gambling Rate Standing at Only 0.3%
By Jeff Osienya Oct 05, 2020 IndustryEven though about 85% of Spaniards participate in gambling, a newly released report has shown that only 0.3% of the active gamblers are being negatively affected by the gambling. Most of the gambling population prefers land-based venues to online gaming.Spain’s University Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M) has just published its Gambling & Society 2020 report, which outlines the findings of its annual market study for the state of gambling in the country for the year 2019. The research indicates that whereas 84.9% of Spain’s population took part in some form of gambling activity last year, only 0.3% of the gamblers are problem gamblers.
Even though the percentage of gamblers in the country seems pretty high, the number of gamblers has actually reduced from what they were over a decade ago. Before the economic crisis hit the country back in 2007, numbers back then indicated that over 90% of the adult population participated in gambling.
Lottery Games Take the Top Spot in Popularity
UC3M’s new report for 2019 outlines that the draw-based lottery games are the most popular gambling games among players in Spain. 25.8 million locals in the country participated in the Christmas Lottery last year, representing a 74.5% participation rate.
Additionally, 14.5 million and 14 million participants chose the El Niño Lottery and the Primitiva Lotter’s respectively, to complete the top-three spots in the popularity of specific lotto games. The Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles (ONCE) lotteries took the third runner’s up position for the most popular lottery games in Spain, with 8.5 million participants.
Moving on to age-based demographics, the UC3M report disclosed that the ONCE scratchers were the most favored gambling games by the younger players as 50.5% of the participants were under 35 years old. The ONCE scratchcard games which were played by 9.9% of the population, were also reported to be the fastest-growing gambling form for the second year in a row in Spain.
Most Spaniards Prefer Playing in Gambling Halls
When it came to the choice of gambling venues, of the 6.5 million people in the country played in gambling halls, gaming machine bars, bingo, and casino facilities. However, the demographic varied widely in age – from 18 to 75 years old, and they came from all social groups.
Breaking down the 2019 numbers further, 3 million players chose gaming rooms, 2.4 million went to bingo halls, 2.2 million players visited casinos, and 1.5 million gambled on type B arcade gaming machines that are available in hospitality locations. All these locations faced a decline in the number of visitors compared to 2018, with local casinos facing the largest year over year decline at 6.5% of the population from 7.2% the previous year, hitting a new low since 2016. The visitor figures for bingo halls and gaming halls on the other hand dipped to 6.9% and 8.1% from 7.9% and 8.2% of the population in 2018 respectively.
Retail sports betting also went down with only 1.3 million Spaniards visiting the betting shops, representing 3.7% of the population, down from 4.2% last year.
What About Online Gambling?
As for internet-based gambling statistics in 2019, UC3M derived its figures from the DGOJ, Spain’s gambling regulator, but they are currently not complete. However, the Consejo Empresarial del Juego (CEJUEGO), the country’s trade body for the casino industry disclosed that there are about 1.5 million online gamblers, a number that’s roughly similar to that of last year.
The number of active monthly online players on the other hand is at about 630,000, representing 1.7% of the country’s population, slightly higher than 2018’s 1.6%. Besides, only 300,000 online gamblers were regulars on online platforms, which is only 0.9% of the adult population in the country. Men between 26 and 35 years were found to make up the biggest volume of online gamblers in Spain, making up 34.4% of the players. However, the demographic in its entirety is still widely diverse. As for the gambling handle, players in 2019 spent nearly €800 million on online gambling, which is 7.7% of the overall revenue generated from the entire gambling industry in Spain.
All in all, from the survey, most Spaniards who participate in lottery games do it because of a chance of hitting the massive jackpots whereas other forms of gambling are enjoyed by players who want to socialize or show off their prowess in the games.
Based on the new findings, CEJUEGO argues that with only 0.3% of players facing gambling harm, there’s hardly any reason to worry that the Spanish society is facing a gambling problem but the data offers direction for the industry. The government however has been clamping harder on gambling of late by introducing stricter advertising measures and more recently unifying the self-exclusion schemes for the country’s 17 autonomous regions.
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