At the end of last year the Spanish government announced their intention to partially privatize the national lotteries. The suggested price was ridiculously low. Basically, the government was reacting to "the markets" demanding 5%-7% for long-term lending by selling the lotteries at a 15%+ implied yield. A lot of people made the same back-of-the-envelope yield calculation and were wondering how one would go about buying some stock when this is privatised...

DiagonalPeriodico.net: El coste de la privatización de la lotería

En diciembre, el Gobierno anunció la privatización del 30% de Loterías y Apuestas del Estado. El motivo, según confesó la ministra de Economía, Elena Salgado, a un medio extranjero, era "hacer caja". Sin embargo, los números no cuadran: el Ejecutivo anunció que con ese 30% preveía ingresar unos 5.000 millones de euros, cuando la entidad permite ingresar a las arcas públicas casi 3.000 millones de euros al año. El PP, que se opone a esta venta "de saldo", cifra en 20.000 millones la operación para que esta sea rentable.

In December, the Government announced the privatisation of 30% of the State Lotteries and Bets. The motive the economy minister Elena Salgado's confessed to a foreign media outlet was "to cash in". However, the numbers don't add up. The government announced that with this 30% they intended to raise €5bn, when the public entity produces an income of €3bn a year for the public treasury. The PP, opposing this "firesale", values the operation at €20bn for it to be profitable