Gambling is another prime hobby. In fact it’s more like an
obsession: only Americans and Filipinos spend more on
chance. In total Spain lays out over€20billion a year on the
horses, lotteries, slot machines, dominoes and anything
else that will take a bet.The flutterde forcecomes each
December when Spain stages the world’s biggest lottery,
El Gordo (The Fat One), in which pretty much everyone
buys a share.Where do the Spanish go on holiday?
Historically only the well-heeled Spaniard took a holiday,
usually heading for the north coast where the grand
hotel buildings in towns like San Sebastian and Santander
still remain. Most people now get away for a week or
two, draining from the cities onto clogged roads at Easter,
Christmas and in the summer.They tend to remain
within Spain, and often within their own region. Native
holidaymakers rarely go for the all-inclusive packages that
northern Europeans find so endearing of Mediterranean
Europe. Instead they stay with relatives or friends, or will
rent an apartment. A significant number head for a second
home. Like their foreign visitors, the Spanish head for
the beach (albeit beaches that aren’t on the package
tourist’s map) althoughturismo rural, holing up in a remote
Extremaduran or Pyrenean farm or B&B, is growing all the
time. Cheap air travel has impacted on the Spanish holiday
market, with flights abroad doubling over the last decade.338- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
Blind faith in chance
The most visible sign
of Spain’s gambling
addiction are the ONCE
kiosks selling tickets for
the daily lottery. ONCE
is actually the acronym
for Spain’s national
association for the blind,
employing unsighted
people and raising cash
since Franco put them
in charge of the lottery
in 1938. Today, it’s a
powerful commercial
operation.