Camelot the organisers of the UK’s National Lottery have taken the decision to remove from sale with immediate effect, the sale of their £10 scratchcards. However, all unclaimed prizes will still be honoured.
As part of their responsible gambling and social commitments, Camelot are of the view that the sale of the expensive cards, which offer seven figure jackpot payouts, could cause some purchasers to become addicted to gambling.
The scratchcards which form part of the £3.1bn revenue accrued by the lottery operator last year, have now been withdrawn from all National Lottery retailers, with a spokesperson for Camelot stating: “This was found as part of our player protection programme, that includes research and polling players and looking at game designs.”
With the spokesperson for the lottery operator continuing: “As part of the ongoing work we carry out to ensure all of our players can play in a healthy and enjoyable way, we became aware that, unlike any of our other scratchcards, these particular games over-indexed among problem gamblers.”
“Even though it’s widely acknowledged that the risk of problem play associated with our games is very low, player protection has always underpinned the way we run The National Lottery.”
“So, in keeping with that commitment, we decided to stop selling these particular Scratchcards and instructed our retailers to remove all tickets from sale.”
“We believed this was the right thing to do to help protect the very small minority of players concerned.”
