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Spain – Codere and University of Madrid release report on gambling in Spain
By Phil - 23 June 2016
The University of La Carlos III Madrid (UC3M) and the Codere foundation have presented the findings of their Seventh Report on the Social Perception of Gambling in Spain 2016.
According to the findings gambling addiction in Spain is very low, affecting only between 0.1 and 0.3 per cent of the population or between 34,200 and 102,000 individuals, according to the study which was prepared by the Institute of Governance Policy of the University. The findings mean that Spain ranks as relatively low in the world when it comes to gambling addiction despite the rise of online gaming.
According to Professor of Sociology at the University José Antonio Gómez: “Spanish society is not immersed in compulsive gambling and the current consumption (does not amount to) a pathological gambling problem.”
When it comes to gaming online the autonomous community of Madrid has the highest concentration of players (with 20.1 per cent), followed by Andalucía (16.7 per cent), Valencia (13.6 per cent), Cataluña (13.3 per cent) and Galicia (5.5 per cent). Valencia and Andalusia recorded significant increases when it comes to gaming online in terms of player concentration increasing by 3.4 per cent and 3.9 per cent respectively last year. By contrast, the percentage of online players dropped by 3.8 per cent in Madrid and Catalonia by 3.5 per cent.
Other trends in the report show that public lottery ticket purchases are becoming increasingly normalised via the internet. In 2015 three out of four residents in Spain aged between 18 and 75 years (75.1 per cent), had played the National Lottery – a 2.5 per cent increase compared to 2013. According to the study this increase was due mainly to the recovery of sales after a 20 per cent tax was imposed on prizes of more than €2,500 in 2013. Bingo participation increased slightly in 2015, to reach 2.8m players (8.2 per cent) compared to 2.6 million in 2014 (7.6 per cent).
At the same time bingo has shown a larger progression compared to online gaming although it still lags behind online gaming with 26 per cent of players saying that they had tried bingo in the last two months while 29.7 of those surveyed said that they had played online casinos within the same period.
The data adds to important information on the Spanish market which was released last month by The Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ) . According to the latest report in Spain online gaming is on the rise with revenues increasing by 9.56 per cent during the first quarter of this year compared to the fourth quarter of 2015 and 33.46 per cent compared to the same period last year. The results of the DGOJ study revealed that Gross Gaming Revenue for the first quarter of 2016 stood at €102.3m compared to the fourth quarter of last year – an increase of 32.15 per cent year on year. Sport betting dominates the market with betting stakes standing at €1.3bn – 33 per cent more compared to last year when it stood at around €1bn.
