Responsible gaming

Many people find the prospect of a big win exciting and for the majority of our players, The National Lottery is an occasional flutter. However, we do realise that our products may be harmful to a small number of vulnerable groups. We see it as our responsibility to minimise the potential negative impacts of our products on these groups which we define as:

We base our responsible gaming strategy on the principles of the internationally-recognised Reno Model (see diagram below). This emphasises the need to focus on prevention and education rather than simply focusing on treatment referral, which is a last resort.

Reno Model

Reno model

We monitor the effectiveness of our responsible gaming strategy and set targets for improvement. Our internal Player Protection Panel (PPP) agrees these targets and monitors progress against them.

We seek regular input from academics and specialist groups with an interest in protecting vulnerable groups, to inform our approach to protecting consumers. For example, we consult public interest groups when developing new games and marketing strategies. In 2009/10, we ran two sessions with leading academics, clinicians and charity representatives. We have used the outputs of these sessions to update our responsible gaming strategy, and plan to finalise this in 2010. In addition, during the year we began to commission research to help us better understand online player behaviour. This research will be used by the PPP to help formulate the strategy.

International leadership

We are proud to have set and maintained the highest standards of responsible play in the UK gambling industry. We share our experience with the broader gambling industry in the UK and with fellow lottery operators around the world.

To do this, we work on both the national and international stages to develop global standards which address the social impacts of gambling.

We continue to occupy high-profile positions within two international lottery bodies, The European Lotteries Association (EL) and the World Lottery Association (WLA). We work closely with these bodies to encourage lottery operators to remain focused on responsible gaming and to reinforce the message that, by working together, the lottery sector can raise standards and strengthen responsible gaming programmes on a global level.

Our Chief Executive co-chairs the World Lotteries Association (WLA) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee, chairs the EL Responsible Gaming Commission and champions responsible gaming on the EL and WLA Executive Committees. Our Head of Corporate Responsibility chairs the EL Responsible Gaming Working Group and co-chairs the WLA CSR Working Group.

Through our chairmanship, we led the development of a global Responsible Gaming Framework through the World Lottery Association and of a European Responsible Gaming Standard and certification framework through the European Lottery Association.

The WLA Framework was adopted by its 140 members in 2006 and we were pleased to note that in 2009 the WLA made it mandatory for its members to make a commitment to responsible play and to achieve at least the first level of certification. We have since played a leading role in setting up robust governance structures around the Framework, which will allow this requirement to be put into practice.

We have been recognised for our leading-edge responsible gambling programme by achieving the highest standard possible in both the WLA Framework (Level 4) as well as receiving 'aligned with the standard' status against the European Lottery's Association Responsible Gaming Standards. The certification process was independently audited and overseen by Deloitte LLP.