VIE 29 DE MARZO DE 2024 - 13:00hs.
Affected by the pandemic

Scratch cards bets fell in 2020 to their lowest since 2017 in Portugal

In a year of pandemic, the socio-economic changes in the lives of the Portuguese caused the stakes in scratch cards to drop 16%. The information was released by Santa Casa Misericórdia de Lisboa, responsible for Jogos Santa Casa, although the 2020 report is not yet fully closed. The numbers indicate that spending on scratch cards has returned to the level of 2017 after years of successive rises in bets, registering now the biggest drop in recent years.

“In view of the atypical year that was 2020 motivated by the pandemic of the COVID-19, and that affected innumerable sectors of the economy, the sales of the social games of the State also had a decrease in its totality, including the instant lottery known as ‘Raspadinha’ (scratch card), which had a drop of 16% compared to 2019,” indicates Santa Casa.

According to the same source, as the report is not closed, the entity does not informe the exact total spent by the Portuguese in 2020.

However, doing the math, in 2019, in gross sales the Portuguese spent 1.71 billion euros with the scratch cards, which means that they spent an average of 4.7 million euros per day in this instant lottery.

Thus, having been the drop in 16% in 2020, the Portuguese will have spent approximately 1.4 billion euros.

The numbers indicate that spending on scratch cards has returned to the level of 2017 after years of successive rises in bets, registering now the biggest drop in recent years.

Santa Casa stresses that “it is important to underline that the increase in Raspadinha's sales, namely between 2010 and 2016, was mainly due to the increase in the number of bettors and not to the increase in per capita expenditure, that is, of the amount spent per bettor.”

Source: ZAP