Camelot congratulates responsible National Lottery retailers
National Lottery retailers achieve 91% ‘first visit’ pass rate for third consecutive year
Camelot has congratulated its retailers for the third year in a row after final results for 2019 show that 91% of National Lottery retailers correctly asked for ID as proof of age on the first visit. The high pass rate has now been maintained for three straight years, and betters 2016’s and 2015’s results by 2% and 5% respectively.
In line with its long-term commitment to preventing underage and supporting healthy play, each year Camelot conducts 11,600 mystery shopper visits to ensure that people under the age of 16 don’t play any National Lottery game.
When mystery shopping visits kick off in 2020, Camelot will be reminding its retailers of their responsibilities in this area. A leaflet will be landing in all National Lottery retailers over the next few months with top tips on acceptable forms of identification, what to do if a customer appears to be underage or playing in an unhealthy way, and ways to ensure all staff are correctly trained.
Camelot’s Retail Director, Jenny Blogg, said that the success of 2019’s visits was thanks to retailers implementing the right measures, as well as working in partnership with the team at Camelot: “At this very difficult time, I’m absolutely delighted to be able to share the news that our National Lottery retail partners have retained their excellent mystery shopping pass rate for a third year running. Keeping players safe is central to how Camelot operates The National Lottery, and we have lots of processes in place to prevent underage play and also to support healthy play. Our 2019 results clearly show that these are working well, and have been for a number of years now. I’d like to personally thank each and every one of our retail partners for the part they have played in this.”
In addition, Camelot is continuing with the next phase of its ‘Supporting Healthy Play’ training programme throughout the year, to support retailers in feeling confident and equipped in this respect. The training educates retailers and offers tools for how to respond if a customer is asking for help with their play, or if shop staff are worried about a regular customer playing too much. It also provides retailers with the right resources to be able to offer customers information on GamCare – the leading provider of information, advice, support and free counselling for the prevention and treatment of problem gambling.
Camelot’s mystery shopping programme has been in place for over a decade. If a retailer fails a mystery shopping visit on three occasions, their National Lottery terminal will be suspended and is likely to be removed.
For further information, please contact:
Camelot Press Office: 020 7632 5711
Notes to Editors:
- Camelot UK Lotteries Limited is the licensed operator of The National Lottery® and is committed to raising money for National Lottery Good Causes designated by Parliament. Camelot is not responsible for distributing or awarding these funds.
- On average, Camelot generates around £30 million each week for National Lottery-funded projects. In total, over £40 billion has now been raised and more than 565,000 individual grants have been made across the UK – the equivalent of around 200 lottery grants in every UK postcode district.
- The National Lottery has so far awarded over £73 billion in prizes and created more than 5,500 millionaires or multi-millionaires since its launch in 1994.
- Accounting for over 70% of sales, retail is the largest National Lottery sales channel. Camelot now works with around 44,000 retailers across the UK, with independent outlets making up the majority. To date, National Lottery retailers have earned over £6.7 billion in total sales commission.
- Camelot has held the World Lottery Association (WLA) Responsible Gaming Certification Level 4 - which is the highest possible certification - since its inception.
- Camelot has held the European Lotteries (EL) Responsible Gaming Certification since it was created - gaining the accreditation four times in total - and is currently accredited until 2022.
- The UK National Lottery is ranked just 66th in the world in terms of per capita spend, despite being the sixth largest lottery in the world by sales – underlining the effectiveness of Camelot’s strategy to encourage lots of people to play but to only spend relatively small amounts (Source: La Fleur’s 2019 World Lottery Almanac).
- For further information on Camelot, The National Lottery and its games, please visit: www.camelotgroup.co.uk and www.national-lottery.co.uk.
- Players of all National Lottery games must be aged 16 or over.
