Lottery loophole lets 16-year-olds bet £350 a week
A LOOPHOLE in the law is allowing children as young as 16 to spend up to £350 a week gambling on National Lottery games.
Campaigners and MPs fear it could lead to a gambling epidemic in future generations, with the latest figures revealing that 16 and 17-year-olds spent £47million on National Lottery games in 2017-2018.
The normal minimum age for gambling is 18, but the loophole gives Camelot, which runs the lottery, exclusive access to a teenage market. Children can enter the lottery and buy scratchcards – and also play 45 instant-win games, one of which offers a top prize of £500,000.
The games are under the names of traditional family favourites such as Monopoly, Scrabble and Cluedo, with wins of up to £300,000. The company also introduced a Love Island-themed scratchcard.
Tory MP Richard Holden, who is campaigning to end the loophole, described it as ‘highly disturbing’ and ‘ridiculous’.
The MP for North West Durham told the Daily Mail: ‘The idea that the lottery is getting £50million a year from 16 and 17-year-olds – the majority of which is coming from instant-win games – is highly disturbing.
‘It is the only place where 16 and 17-year-olds can play cash prize instant-win games. It’s really odd that there’s this loophole that the National Lottery has to allow online instant-win gambling of up to £350 a week for children. The age needs to be raised to 18. It’s meant to be a lottery – it’s not meant to be kids with scratchcards or playing online on their phones.’
Labour MP Carolyn Harris, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on gambling-related harm, told The Sunday Times: ‘The lottery is clearly competing with mainstream gambling companies, but they have the advantage of being able to target children.’
The group has written to Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden to call for the minimum age to play the lottery to be raised to 18 ‘as a matter of urgency’.
Anne Longfield, the children’s commissioner for England, told The Sunday Times: ‘It’s surprising, given the large, worrying and well-established numbers of children who problem gamble, that any gaming platform should have a lower age limit than any other.’
Matt Zarb-Cousin, director of Clean Up Gambling said: ‘The younger you are, the more likely you are to get addicted.
‘All online gambling should have a minimum age of 18.’
Camelot said: ‘We agree with the Government that it is appropriate to review this – but ultimately it is a matter for the Government, and if it chooses to raise the age to 18, we will support that.’
‘A matter of urgency’
SINCe its launch 26 years ago, the National Lottery has transformed countless lives.
It turned 5,700 of us into newly minted millionaires and raised billions for good causes.
But now we learn that its operator, Camelot, is shamelessly exploiting a legal loophole to allow children to play online games in the hope of winning huge prizes.
Incredibly, in just one year, 16 and 17year-olds blew an eye-watering £47million.
This cynical manipulation must end. The Government should raise the minimum age to 18 – in line with other gambling.
The Lottery must not be permitted to lure youngsters on to the slippery slope to addiction and broken lives.