Nine in 10 Lotto retailers pass mystery shopping visits

More than 90% of the 11,600 mystery shopping visits in 2018 resulted in ID requests on the first occasion – a 2% increase from 2016 and 5% up on 2015.

Camelot has pledged to work with retailers throughout the year to ensure retailers ask for the right types of ID, ensure staff are correctly trained to not sell National Lottery products to anyone under the age of 16 and introduce a new ‘preventing excessive play’ training programme.

Camelot retail director Duncan Malyon said: “To play any National Lottery games, you must be 16 or older. Obviously many retailers already have their own underage policies in place – such as Challenge 21 or 25 – but we’re doing all we can to provide support and guidance for National Lottery products specifically.

“So, while ensuring people under 16 aren’t playing our games is vital, it’s also important that retailers know what to do if a customer might be playing too much. We hope that our measures provide retailers with some easy-to-use top tips – and we’ll also be conducting telephone calls and face-to-face visits to talk through what it means in their individual store.”