Healthy Play

We’re internationally recognised for selling National Lottery tickets in a socially responsible way – with our long-term strategy being to encourage lots of people to play but to only spend relatively small amounts individually.

We’re proud to say that around 60% of UK adults play our games. We’re also proud of the fact that, according to La Fleur’s World Almanac 2020, The National Lottery is ranked just 59th in the world in terms of per capita spend – despite being the fifth largest lottery in the world in terms of sales. Both achievements underline the ongoing effectiveness of our approach in this area.

We know, however, that we can’t take anything for granted. Even though the inherent risk of unhealthy play associated with National Lottery products remains very low, we recognise that, because of our scale, we must continue to do everything we can to encourage and support healthy play wherever possible.

Our new healthy play strategy enables us to do this by focusing on four key areas:

• Player – to prevent underage players from accessing National Lottery products, and to detect and interact with at-risk players to minimise unhealthy play

• Product – to design games that are lower risk and don’t have a particular appeal to vulnerable groups, or those under the age of 16 (18 from 22 April 2021), through a rigorous game design process

• Place – to create controlled play environments, online and in retail, and promote healthy play behaviours to all players

• Leadership – to contribute to industry working groups, take leadership roles at the European Lotteries and World Lottery Association, and achieve the highest levels of Responsible Gaming Certification and GamCare’s Safer Gambling Standard

Read our Consumer Protection Strategy and check out our 'Dream Big, Play Small' player portal.