European Lotteries members contributed €22bn to society in 2022

The European Lotteries (EL) has revealed that just over €22bn was contributed to society by all its members in 2022.

A year-on-year growth of a little over 11%, the figure has been described as the most important outcome of EL’s 17th consecutive report on the lottery sector in Europe, which compiles data gathered from the 68 EL members in 2022. 

In the new report, the organisation outlined that of the €22bn, 73% went to state budgets, 12% went to support social and other societal purposes, almost 9% to support sports, 4% to culture & heritage, nearly 2% to support health and only 0.4% to education.

Notably, sports betting accounted for over 2022 a growth of more than 7% compared to the previous year.

“It now became the second fastest growing game category within the EL Members base,” the report said, also highlighting that online operations grew further with a growth percentage of just over 9%.

Furthermore, EL explained that the report demonstrates that the total gross gaming revenue of all gaming categories amounted to just over €38bn, which is an increase of some 6% compared to 2021. 

“More than half of this GGR (53%) was accounted for by the results of Draw Based Games (DBGs) organised by the EL Members in their national markets. DBGs grew by some 3% compared to 2021,” the report detailed.

Meanwhile, instant games showed a 2% growth compared to the previous year, making it the slowest-growing category in 2022. 

The EL did, however, emphasise that more than half of its members were and are faced with any form of advertisement restrictions – which can be any kind of influence on any game category, offline or online. 

Finally, the EL members reported a total of over 51,000 employees in the lottery sector, an increase of 5% compared to 2021. The ratio between male and female employees was 50% in 2022.

The full report can be found on the EL website.