Portuguese people have never bet so much on Santa Casa games.
Gross sales from social games reached €2,7 billion in 2016, representing a 24% increase compared to the previous year's revenue, the highest value ever recorded for Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa (SCML). This growth also resulted in the beneficiary entities receiving the highest amount ever: €672 million (11,4% more than in 2015).
Scratch cards alone, which are increasingly becoming the preferred game for the Portuguese, accounted for almost half of the value of bets last year, totaling €1,3 billion. This figure represents a 23,3% increase compared to 2015. However, the game that grew the most was Placard. Created in 2015, it absorbed €385,4 million and already represents about 14% of total sales.
Mutual betting (Euromillions, Totobola, Totoloto, Milhão and Joker) continues the downward trend seen in recent years, and now represents just over 34% of the total. Regarding Totobola, which, after registering growth in 2015, again lost bettors, last year it represented only 9,2 million euros, that is, 18,5% less than the previous year.
In statements to the press, the head of the Santa Casa, Santana Lopes, disputed the idea that the Portuguese are addicted to gambling, especially since "the average value of bets remained at 2,5 euros". "The Portuguese have been gambling for decades and the volume of bets has been increasing, but I believe this is also linked to the trust that the Portuguese have in the destination of the funds that go to social games," he stated. Speaking at the presentation of the management reports of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa (SCML), Santana Lopes stressed that the "accounts are solid and robust" and that they "have far exceeded expectations".
The net results were “very good,” the head of Santa Casa also highlighted, referring to the €21,1 million achieved last year (an increase of €15,3 million compared to 2015). A “profit” that resulted not only from the increase in the results of social games, but also from the “effective control of current expenses, namely in purchases, supplies and external services, whose costs decreased by 4,1% to €56,4 million.
Despite the financial sustainability of Santa Casa being guaranteed, the administrator assured that the institution “does not rest on the solidity of its accounts” and will continue to diversify its revenue sources, namely in terms of assets and the development of horse racing betting, planned for the first half of 2018, and the renewal of traditional games, such as Totobola. Santana Lopes also stressed that the results obtained have allowed for the strengthening of support policies in the areas of health, social action, research, culture, heritage, among others.
Good awards
The money that Portuguese people gamble is, in part, returned to society. Another "slice" goes to prizes, when bettors are lucky in the game. In the last year alone, the prizes awarded totaled 1,668 million euros, 372,4 million euros more than in 2015, says Santa Casa. "In 2016, the share of gross sales allocated to prizes was 60,1%, after having registered a relative weight of 57,8% in 2015 and 56,7% in 2014," it notes.
Santa Casa says that “2016 was another year marked by the distribution of many large prizes to the Portuguese people.” Many billions were awarded to various bettors, some with otherworldly returns, especially in the Euromillions (which awarded five first prizes in Portugal, totaling more than €219,5 million). With just one €6 bet, one bettor won more than €73 million. That is, a return of 1.216.704.517%.
If the biggest EuroMillions prize generated such a high return, the second biggest was obtained with a bet of just one euro on Joker: 726.899.300%, paying out 7,26 million euros. Placard offered a prize of 25.113 euros, but a bet of 50 euros was required. Even so, the return reached 50.126%. ( With Dinheiro Vivo and EcoPT )
