This has generated an enormous turnover, with earnings of ?1.4 billion for the operators of this business, exactly 15% more than last year. It can even happen that at the checkout the assistant herself invites you to buy a lucky ticket. Even if the economy is in free fall, even if there is a continuous downturn in sales of assets, even if the economic situation for families is now at an all time low, betting does not experience any crisis, because everybody, and I mean everybody, dreams of a turning point in his/her own life with a fantastic win. This craze includes people in tight economic situations, unable to have enough money to get to the second week of the month, and people with a sizeable amount of capital in the bank, but still unable to be content with what they have got.

In short, this betting mania affects everybody in one way or the other, and although some sociologists explain this trend as a spontaneous way to create an illusion to escape the monotony of every day life, there are also those who continue to highlight the dangers behind this addiction, with the possibility of ruining entire families. It is a sad reality how easy it is to get addicted to gambling. Lottomatica is well aware of this fact: this is the company under the control the De Agostini Group through a majority of the issued shares, that has been managing gaming in Italy on behalf of the State Monopolies since 1993, when it was granted the licence by the Finance Ministry, and has been managing the instant lotteries since 2004, a situation which will continue until 2070 according to the Articles of Association of the company. Lottomatica has started to place vending machines everywhere, paying dearly for space in the supermarkets and for high volume selling centres. Scratch cards range from e1 to e10 to attract young and old alike to challenge fate and fortune.

This business is so profitable that gaming is also available online. This is big money, rocketing every year and increasing the takings from an activity that instead of being called a game of chance is presented as a service to the people, and slot machines in bars have become devices for entertainment. Whilst Italians have spent just e54 million since January to play on-line, typical scratch cards have already generated takings of e9 billion in the first nine months of this year. This is actually an amount equal to nine times the estimated total needed for the purchase of Alitalia. The operations of Lottomatica do not stop at scratch cards and slot machines, there are sizeable bets on the Lotto, still in the lead in sales, on Totocalcio, Totip and Superenalotto (the 3 national lotteries), and last but not least on the recent Formula 101 and on sport betting. This is a business where, according to a survey by "Il Salvagente", the on-line daily newspaper for consumers, only 20% of the takings goes into the tax coffers, because strangely enough the operation of this vicious circle is very expensive to run.

Last October Lottomatica also renewed its management contract for the California lotteries for another four years, netting about $250 million. With turnover rising steadily the share price is not far behind, completely unaffected by the world economic crisis, and in consequence Lottomatica shares are rising steadily. In conclusion, this industry is not experiencing any crisis, and the reason is the ability to deceive millions of people and create the illusion of easy money, despite the fact that national laws forbid games of chance.

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