Scratch card sales up to €3m a week

PEOPLE in Ireland are now spending around €3 million every week on scratch cards.

First launched by the National Lottery 15 years ago, scratch cards remain as popular as ever. Last year, punters spent just over €147 million on scratch cards - around 26% of the €559 million spent on all National Lottery competitions.

Just over 50% of all National Lottery sales, or €294 million, was returned in prizes.