From the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) in Spain comes a first time study analysing gambler perception. The data gathered in this study, which is based on a survey headed by Professor José Antonio Gómez Yánez and carried with a sample of 1,000 interviews, demonstrate that gambling is a very widespread practice in society given that 92.4% of Spaniards aged 18 to75 have done so on at least one occasion, and almost half (49.4%) state that they habitually gamble.

The goal of this research, according to José Ignacio Cases, head of the Department of Political Science and Sociology at UC3M, is "initiating reflection from the academic point of view on a little known reality in Spain: that of the gaming industry, which involves a large number of workers, many millions of euros, with winnings going to a large number of citizens, practically all of them adults.” In addition, the amount of money gambled, according to interviewee statements, ranges from 6 to 35 euros a month, for 55% of those interviewed, who usually dedicate 10 minutes a day to this activity on average.

The online gambler is an internaut who gambles, not a gambler who bets on the Internet. This is one of the conclusions of the University’s research study. Another conclusion of the report is that the amount of money played is underestimated: on average, a gambler who thinks he has bet 22 euros a month, in reality has bet 40 euros. José Ignacio Cases, who has headed and coordinated this research together with Javier Ruiz, from the Instituto de Política y Gobernanza (The Institute for Policy and Governance) (IPOLGOB) at UC3M, believes that online players by browsing the net are less aware that they are gambling.

Given the breadth of the population that gambles, the profile tends to coincide with that of the population as a whole, but Spanish gamblers are more often men than women, especially those between the ages of 22 and 55, with medium high social status. The report suggests that nearly 2.5 million Spaniards from around the country gamble online, with Castilla y León, Madrid and Cantabria having slightly higher levels of participants.

Published by the IPOLGOB and entitled: “Una aproximación a la percepción sobre el comportamiento y las actitudes sociales respecto al juego y al juego on line en España” (“An approach to the perception regarding behaviour and social attitudes toward gambling and online gambling in Spain”), the study has been sponsored by the CODERE Foundation. According to its authors, it comprises an innovation research study because it gathers information about online gambling in the first study of its kind carried out in Spain. (E-12.02.10)

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