Call for Lottery credit card crackdown: Regulators urged to extend problem gambling controls to lotto tickets
With a year until Czech firm Allwyn starts operating the National Lottery, pressure is mounting for regulators to block punters from using credit cards to play.
The UK gambling watchdog has been on a mission to crack down on problem gambling, upping the lottery age from 16 to 18 and banning the use of credit cards across all online gambling companies, casinos and bingo halls.
The Gambling Commission said firms should prevent punters from ‘gambling with money they do not have’ and hoped to pave the way for safer betting.
Taking the reins: Czech firm Allwyn, which will take over National Lottery next year, is owned by billionaire Karel Komarek (pictured with his wife Stepanka)
But it made one major exception – the National Lottery.
Under the current framework, credit cards can be used to buy lotto tickets and scratch cards, so long as it is part of a wider basket of goods.
Despite the National Lottery having relatively low levels of problem play (0.9 per cent for draw-based games and 1.4 per cent for scratch cards), there is still a significant number of individuals falling through the gaps.
Labour MP Kevin Brennan told the Mail: ‘It is a bit of a farce that you can get round these rules as they stand,’ adding that the current framework was a ‘mess’.
The rationale behind the loophole is that it is more convenient for retailers and customers.
The Gambling Commission argues an in-store credit card ban would be ‘highly complex to implement with significant practical implications for retailers’, which may prevent shops from selling National Lottery products altogether.
While this regulation has been in place for over three years, the rule has come into sharper focus in recent weeks as Allwyn, the incoming lottery licence holder, gears up to take the reins in 2024.
The Czech firm, owned by billionaire Karel Komarek, won the contract from Camelot in March last year and has promised to slash the price of lottery tickets and push more money towards good causes.
The National Lottery raises around £1.8billion per year for charities, sports clubs and the arts.
But with the changing of hands, industry sources have called for regulators to take a more robust approach and stop giving the National Lottery a ‘free pass’ when it comes to safer gambling.
‘There can’t be one rule for one, and one rule for others. Betting is betting; there should be a level playing field for all operators,’ a gambling insider told the Mail.
Likewise, Will Prochaska, campaigner at charity Gamble With Lives, said: ‘The lottery operator shouldn’t be allowed to circumvent restrictions designed to protect people from gambling with credit cards.
‘This is particularly important in relation to instant win games like scratch cards, which we know are addictive and can condition people to be susceptible to even more harmful forms of gambling.’
According to the latest NHS health survey, 60 per cent of all problem gamblers bet on the National Lottery, making it the most popular gambling product for addicts.
Recent data also suggests that the lottery is the biggest form of gambling in the UK, totalling about £4billion a year in revenue, or about a quarter to a third of all gambling in Britain.
With this in mind, Laurence Robertson, a Conservative MP, said Allwyn’s takeover would be a ‘good time’ to revaluate the rules.
‘There should be consistent treatment, not special treatment for the National Lottery,’ Robertson told the Mail.
‘I know money is put to good causes, but it is still money that is lost from being staked,’ he said.
Matt Zarb-Cousin, the director of Clean Up Gambling, who is a former addict himself, said it was ‘counter-intuitive’ to use good causes as a justification to make rules more lax at counters, suggesting that it could lead to problematic behaviours for some punters.
Allwyn said: ‘Allwyn’s goal is to build better lotteries, helping them safely raise more for good causes and the communities in which we operate in line with regulation.
‘We are bringing our innovation and expertise in player safety to ensure the continued success of the National Lottery.’
A Camelot spokesman said: ‘Asking retailers to identify and separate out credit card payments from other card/mobile banking payments for National Lottery purchases, especially when part of a wider shop, would present considerable logistical challenges to retailers in an already challenging environment – and could have an adverse effect on the vital money that the National Lottery raises for good causes.’