Spanish households gambled significantly less in 2012 as the continuing economic downturn continued to reduce disposable income, new research has revealed.
The report on Spaniards’ perceptions of games of chance was carried out by Universidad Carlos III de Mardrid in collaboration with the Codere Foundation and the Centre for Gambling Policy and Legislation Studies.
“The novelty in 2012 was that the frequency with which people gambled as well as the number of games and quantity of money they gambled decreased,” the report stated.
The proportion spent on gambling as part of leisure expenditure decreased from 9.4 per cent to 7.7 per cent last year. In households experiencing economic problems, the report said, spending on gambling nearly disappeared, with only small amounts spent on certain types of public games of chance.
“When there is an economic crisis, what goes up is the demand for luck, particularly those types of gambling that carry with them hope, the idea that a stroke of luck that costs very little money may bring relief or even take care of the rest of their life,” said the report’s author, Professor José Antonio Gómez Yañez. “Spaniards’ relationship with gambling is very rational and cold, as nearly the entire population of Spain (over 85 per cent) gambles in some form, but they do so in a very objective way that is dominated by social customs.”
