ONCE Receives High Certification from European Lotteries
With discussions about responsible gaming on the rise across the global gambling industry, European Lotteries (EL) offers a certification to keep its members on track. Spain’s ONCE lottery has now received EL’s highest level of certification for its gaming standards, for the fifth year in row. This criteria is according to that created by the Responsible Gaming Certification Framework of the European Association of State Lotteries and Toto.
ONCE, an organization to support Spain’s visually impaired population, has been granted a high certification for upholding responsible gaming measures in its popular lotto draw. CDC/Unsplash
What is ONCE?
ONCE is a Spanish lottery and a member of the EL. Its full name is Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles, which translates to Spanish National Organization of the Blind. The foundation organizes many branches of activities and support for those affected by blindness in Spain. Gaming is one part of its fundraising activities.
ONCE’s charity lotto ticket — its original and most popular gaming product — is known as the Cupón. Part of the excitement for those participating in this lottery is that the jackpots can be quite substantial and they are tax-exempt due to the nature of ONCE’s activities. ONCE earns a significant amount of revenue for its charity through the sale of the Cupón.
The Cupón is available most days, with special weekend draws as well, rather than being an annual holiday event, like some special lottos. Tickets are available online and also through physical ONCE kiosks. These kiosks are stationed by visually-impaired persons, as well as people with other disabilities, thanks to the foundation’s charter.
ONCE’s certification process
Due to ONCE’s socially oriented goals, its gaming activities also carry an air of social responsibility. Their gaming products aim to promote safe and responsible gambling. To back up this idea, ONCE has been assessed several times to see if it meets the standards set out by EL.
Happily, for ONCE, it has met this standard continuously since first getting certified in 2011. Out of EL’s 71 lottery members in Europe, it is one of 16 that have gotten this certification standard five times — an impressive achievement.
ONCE achieves this standard by working intimately with FEJAR, the Spanish Federation of Rehabilitated Gambling Players. FEJAR helps to inform ONCE’s policies from how it trains its vendors and workers, to its overall lottery messaging.
Its overall policies include: regularly training staff, assessing the addictive risk of various products it introduces, careful consideration of advertising messaging, abiding by a Corporate Governance law, offering instruction to players, and finally collaborating with special interest groups like FEJAR and government institutions.
For February 17th, known as Responsible Gaming Day, ONCE even dedicated its daily lotto ticket to the cause. Five millions coupons were bought and in turn helped to raise awareness for the issue. Spain’s federal government has taken interest in this issue, addressing in part the awareness needed for risk behavior in female players.
Spain was recently named one of the top contributing countries for EL. A report on the earnings of EL’s various member lotteries that year was recently released. According to this report, Spain alone contributed €3,600 million in 2021. The lottery organization has continued to grow substantially, despite issues posed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Overall, its EU members brought in €20,000 million in 2021.
