This year we invested £1.6m in prevention strategies.
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Responsible strategies
We have strategies in place to make sure we design and market our products responsibly, in a way that limits their attraction to underage and vulnerable people. We also involve a wide range of people and groups in this work, from our regulator to players, and public interest groups.
Our overall strategy is to make sure the lottery remains a mass pursuit by encouraging as many people as possible to play spending a relatively small amount. To monitor how we're doing we check indicators such as weekly spend per player and Camelot's ranking in the world on per capita sales.
More specifically, we have two strategies in place to manage the issue of responsible play. One is aimed at preventing underage play, the other at preventing excessive play.
- Our strategy to prevent underage play focuses on preventing players under 16 from playing The National Lottery. We aim to discourage underage people from buying tickets, actively deter retailers from selling them tickets, and raise awareness of the dangers of buying National Lottery tickets for children. Read our strategy on underage play (DOC 90kb).
- Our strategy to prevent excessive play is aimed at problem gambling in three vulnerable groups – people on low incomes who spend a disproportionately large amount on lottery products, people who don't understand the risks or how to play responsibly, and those who have developed an addiction to gambling. Read our excessive play strategy (DOC 78kb).
The strategies are reviewed every year by our regulator, the National Lottery Commission (NLC) and we monitor our compliance and how much we spend on them. This year we invested £1.6m in prevention strategies.
Until 2005/06, the strategies were managed by our Responsible Play Group. But the fast–moving nature of the gambling market and a review we conducted in 2005/06 pointed out the need to step–up our activities in this area. That's why we have strengthened our management structures and set up the Player Protection Panel chaired by our Commercial and Operations Director. Other directors from our commercial team are now involved in this group and this has led to accelerated progress in addressing strategic player protection issues.