Spain’s land-based gambling market recorded higher player spending in 2014, marking the first sign of positive annual growth since the 2008 economic crisis.

This week saw Game Studies, an offshoot of the Codere Foundation, release its annual report on Spain’s gambling industry. The fourth edition of the market survey was compiled from publicly available data and produced in collaboration with the Institute of Policy and Governance at the University Carlos III of Madrid.

The report says Spaniards’ total spending on gambling came to just over €24b in 2014, up 1% from 2013’s figure, the first year-on-year increase since 2008. However, 2014’s total was only three-quarters of 2008’s €32.14b, showing just how much more improvement must be made for the market to regain the ground lost since the Spanish economy imploded.

Regardless, 2014’s gambling spending represented 2.5% of Spain’s gross domestic product, underscoring the industry’s importance to the national economy. The industry directly employs 76k workers – 11k less than in 2007 – while indirectly supporting 154,300.