Their customers are divided into two large groups, the study explains.

Almost 2 million visited a casino, 3 million a bingo hall and another 3 million visited a gambling hall. Social gambling activities managed by the private sector attracted smaller numbers: 19.4% of the population between 18 and 75 years old. “The biggest new development is the significant growth of ONCE with its scratch cards,” comment the authors of the study, José Antonio Gómez Yáñez, lecturer in Sociology in the UC3M’s IPOLGOB, and Carlos Lalanda Fernández, lawyer and founder of the Gambling Policy and Legislation Research Centre. The majority of the population (84.8%) between 18 and 75 years old, about 29 million people, participated in some form of public lottery during 2018, mainly in games managed by SELAE (Spanish State Lotteries) and ONCE: 25.5 million in the 2018 Christmas lottery, 16 million in the 2019 El Niño lottery, 14 million in the La Primitiva lotteries, 9 million in ONCE tickets, 3.8 in weekly lottery draws, and about 3 million in ONCE scratch cards and active games. According to the report, 27 different forms of gambling, lotteries or betting are available in Spain, each with its own audience and rules.