ONCE reports a 28% decline in 2020 revenues

Lottery operator ONCE has declared a sales decline by 28% to €1.6bn in its 2020 financial report due to the strict confinement measures that affected Spain.
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Spanish state lottery operator ONCE has shared its financial results from 2020, a year in which its sales declined by 28% to €1.6bn, mainly because of the strict confinement measures that affected the country.

Taking into account that in 2019, ONCE had registered record sales figures of €2.25bn, the operator lost approximately €600m last year.

The decrease in sales would have been bigger if not for the fact that street vendors were able to return to their posts by mid-June, the operator said.

“The absolute cease of operations generated by the lockdown caused, for the first time in ONCE’s 82 years of history, the lottery to remove their vendors from the streets and to suspend the traditional draw. This also adds to the fact that there was a slow return to the streets and cities and the subsequent closures and partial confinements,” ONCE explained.

Social enterprises registered revenues of €819.3m, which represents a 16.3% decline when compared to 2019, which had been a record year for ONCE’s contributions.

In regards to Loteria’s social investment, it redirected €228.3m to people with disabilities. The operator explained that out of the total collected from lotteries’ revenues, 55% is destined to prize payment, 24.6% to salaries, 13.1% to expenses and the remaining 11.9% to social investment.

It clarified that the excess will be compensated with benefits from subsequent reports.

“We’ve been focusing on continuing to give out employees confidence and security by converting 3,433 contracts into permanent positions within the Grupo Social ONCE. This is a demonstration that for us, quality employment is a goal, a need to continue generating opportunities in life,” said Miguel Carballeda, President of ONCE.