Serious declines in the gambling industry offer proof that this crisis is tougher than ever. Spaniards do not have much play money, and companies who run gambling operations have seen their profits drop 4.97 billion euros since 2008.
In the last fiscal year alone, the industry made 27.34 billion euros, which is 15.3% less than in 2008 according to data collected in the Annual Gambling Report (Informe Annual de Juego in Spanish) put together by the Ministry of the Interior.
It is a difficult time, especially for Loterías and Apuestas del Estado (LAE), the public operator that is attempting to go public with 30% of its capital at the end of October. The sale will take place between October 18 and October 30 if everything goes as planned. But the news is not all bad. On the bright side, the management team headed by president Aurelio Martínez has managed to turn the situation around completely. There are no indicators that the Spanish economy is improving, or worsening for that matter, but nonetheless Loterías has successfully slowed down its profit losses since the first quarter of the year.
We should wait until the Christmas raffle, when nearly a third of the registered tickets are in play (ticket sales began in July), the company has confirmed that the downtrend has reversed for the first time since 2009. "In the first two quarters we saw a slight improvement with respect to the same period last year."
