‘Raspadinhas’, the instant lottery that captures the poor Portuguese | International

Catarina Basto quickly counts the instant lottery cards sold in her stationery shop in central Lisbon. “We have 21 different types, to which we then add the special products that come out for Christmas, Easter or holidays”, she explains. THE raspadinhas, as the popular game is known in Portugal, can cost from a few cents to 15 euros. Its mechanics are simple (similar to that of the so-called scratch which is sold in Spain): scratch the numbers to see if there is a lucky match that gives you the right to a prize. They are sold everywhere, until last January you could even buy them at post office stalls. An irresistible temptation for pensioners who were about to withdraw their pension at the beginning of the month.

Following the study, the Government banned marketing in branches of CTT, which manages the postal service That pays Raspadinha, funded by the Economic and Social Council in 2023 and which has brought to light worrying figures about the addictive potential of this game. Although to address the gambling problem, new measures will be necessary from the Executive following the early elections that Portugal will hold next Sunday. The report, prepared by seven researchers from the University of Minho, concluded that almost 100,000 people had “problems” with this lottery and around 30,000 already suffered from a pathological addiction. The data amazed the authors of the work. “We knew that it was a significant problem, but we didn’t know that it had such a high incidence”, summarizes Pedro Morgado, professor of Psychiatry at the University of Minho and one of the coordinators of the study together with the economist Luís Aguiar-Conraria, for telephone.

More worrying for Morgado was the predominant portrayal among most of the protagonists: people with little resources, high age, poor education and manual professions. “We have seen that gambling especially affects the most vulnerable groups for various reasons: the rules are easy, it is widely spread in bars, kiosks and supermarkets, the reward can be immediate and each bet is cheap and gives the impression of having spent little”, explains Morgado. Added to this is the disturbance created by the indirect advertising of raspadinha every time someone gets a big award and appears in the media.

In the newsstand he has run for three years near a shopping center in Lisbon, Xavier Sepúlveda checks some of this data every day, but not all. “Those who buy the most are over 50 years old, but there are customers of all types, from a cleaner who takes a raspadinha of one euro to a lady who owns many apartments and spends 500 euros every day. “Everyone plays according to their possibilities,” she says. Sepúlveda noted that the sale of cardboard increases dramatically at Christmas, due to the practice in recent years of buying it as a Christmas gift. He also noted that sales increased during the lockdown. “With the pandemic it was when more tobacco and raspadinhas “I sold because of people’s anxiety,” he says.

Psychiatrist Pedro Morgado mentions a historical turning point in the evolution of the instant lottery. “In Portugal it started to become popular after the 2008 crisis and especially during the large austerity measures that followed starting from 2011. In 2014 it made a brutal leap and became the most popular game”, he underlines. Another indirect and poisoned gift from the troika ―the institutional triad formed by the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank―, which intervened in the management of the country between 2011 and 2014 in exchange for a bailout plan of 78 billion euros. The adjustments and cuts of those days impoverished large sectors of the population. “The time of troika had as collateral damage the growth in sales of raspadinhas. People turned to them in the hope of finding a financial balance for their lives,” explains the researcher from the University of Minho.

In Portugal, the monopoly of these instant lotteries is in the hands of the Santa Casa de Misericordia, an institution founded in 1498 by Queen Leonor as a confraternity to help the most needy and which currently develops social, educational and cultural initiatives in favor of groups with less resources. The paradox that the institution that uses money to help the most disadvantaged is financed with a product that mainly damages the mental health of these groups is difficult to resolve. “This is a social problem that affects the people most supported by the Santa Casa, who are the most vulnerable and most in need of social and health support,” admitted the head of the institution, Ana Jorge, to the Lusa agency. the publication of the study. Jorge offered the organization’s collaboration to fight addiction and promote responsible gaming.

The study by the Economic and Social Council, which will be expanded with two new phases, found that people with a monthly income of between 400 and 664 euros are three times more likely to be repeat buyers than those earning more than 1,500 euros. Likewise, those over 66 are at double the risk compared to younger people. The researchers also noted a relationship between lottery purchases and alcohol consumption, which promotes “disinhibition and difficulties in making health-promoting decisions,” they point out in their conclusions.

The research coordinator does not believe that the ban is a solution. “Every time we ban it, the immediate effect is that people move on to other unregulated and more dangerous games,” warns the psychiatrist. Among alternative measures, he proposes greater control of indirect advertising, the application of self-exclusion mechanisms as exist in other types of games and, in the long term, greater education of people about the risks of gambling disorder in lotteries snapshots. Morgado praises some government decisions such as the separation of raspadinha of heritage – his funds were allocated to interventions in cultural institutions and he encouraged the idea of ​​spending for a good cause – or the ban on sales in post offices.

Follow all international information on Facebook AND Xor inside our weekly newsletter.

_