Almost half of the population (45.6%) plays Euromillions, followed by Scratchcard (36.8%), Totobola/Totoloto (12.2%), Lottery (11.3%) and Placard (8. 8%), reveals the ICAD report
More than half of the population in Portugal (55.6%) gambles for money, according to a national study that indicates that the majority have no signs of addiction, a problem that affects men and young people more.
“In the population as a whole, there are 55.6% of players of any type of money game”, with Euromillions being the most played, according to the final report of the V National Survey on the Consumption of Psychoactive Substances in the General Population, Portugal 2022, released today by the Institute for Addictive Behaviors and Addictions (ICAD).
Almost half of the population (45.6%) plays Euromillions, followed by Scratchcard (36.8%), Totobola/Totoloto (12.2%), Lottery (11.3%) and Placard (8. 8%), reveals the report, which was based on interviews carried out between September 2021 and November 2022 with people between 15 and 74 years of age.
The study also indicates that men play more than women (62.7% vs 49%), with the exception of Scratchcard, which is more requested by women.
The researchers carried out a test to understand gambling addiction and concluded that 53.7% of the population did not have addiction problems with games of chance, but 1.3% of the population showed some signs and 0.5% had even the “probability of being pathological gamblers”.
The prevalence of players with some problems rose from 0.3% in 2012 to 1.2% in 2017, now remaining stable in this latest report. The prevalence of pathological gambling also rose from 0.3% in 2012 to 0.6% in 2017, having now dropped slightly to 0.5%.
The probability of being a pathological gambler is higher among male players and among young people between the ages of 25 and 34, according to the study released today.
The study also analyzes electronic games, which have a prevalence of 8.8%, being higher among men (13.2% compared to 4.7% for women), and among young people between 15 and 24 years old. .
“The prevalence of electronic gaming decreases as you get older”, reads the study, which indicates that almost half of users played any game daily or almost daily and around a third several times a week.
If entertainment is cited by almost half of the electronic game player population as a very important reason for playing, many admit that they do so “as an escape from sadness and depression” or to “do things that are not done in real life”, like driving race cars or flying planes.
The survey also presents a chapter on the lifetime prevalence of heroin use, which dropped by a tenth between 2017 and 2022, from 0.5% to 0.4%.
Heroin use begins, on average, at age 22 in the general population, earlier in men (22 years) than in women (23 years).
The consumption of hallucinogenic mushrooms rose 0.1% between 2017 and 2022, from 0.2% to 0.3%, with younger people seeing the most consumption.
The average age at which hallucinogenic mushrooms begin to be consumed is 20 years in the general population, being earlier in men (19 years) than in women (22 years). When we consider the younger population – aged between 15 and 24 – this average drops to 18 years old.
The survey was carried out by CICS.NOVA – Interdisciplinary Center for Social Sciences at Universidade Nova de Lisboa (NOVA FCSH) for SICAD – Intervention Service in Addictive Behaviors and Addictions, following studies carried out in 2001, 2007, 2012 and 2017 .
