Lotteries

Scratch Lottery

The coming launch of the scratch lottery operated by the ONCE-National Organization for the Blind, will take place in mid-May, 2006. Advertising expenses for this new lottery, known as Rasca y Gana, totals 8 mill.€uros. This instant lottery, also called pre-draw, will be sold through electronic terminals, and the price of the ticket will be of €0.50; 50.8% of the sale value of tickets will return to players (adults) in cash prizes. The Spanish private gaming industry, however, forecasts the failure and low profitability of this new scratch lottery.

Refusal

The Council of Ministers of the Spanish government has turned down complaints put forth by the regional governments of Cataluña and Andalucía against the ONCE scratch lottery. Governments of the Autonomous Communities put forth a formal complaints against the oncoming launch of the scratch lottery because they consider this game invades their regional legal rights according to current regulations. Notwithstanding this, the Constitution of Spain states that the State has the right to lotteries at national level and, particularly, the charity-oriented once.