Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the correlation between playing National Lottery games and gambling-related harm for (a) women, (b) men and (c) people under the age of 21.

Evidence from the 2018 Health Survey for England showed that National Lottery games are associated with the lowest levels of problem gambling across all gambling products. Problem gambling rates for National Lottery draw-based games were 0.9% while the figure for Scratchcards was 1.4%. By comparison, the problem gambling rates for other activities covered by the survey ranged from 2.7% to 12.7%.

The attached table shows levels of problem gambling broken down by women, men and 16-19 year olds.

The Health survey does not provide data at a category level for Online Instant Win Games, and does not break down levels of problem gambling by activity and demographic group.

The government recently legislated to increase the minimum age to purchase and sell all National Lottery products from 16 to 18. We are working with the current operator, Camelot, and the Gambling Commission to ensure a smooth implementation, acting sooner where possible. Camelot has already announced plans to increase the online age limit in April 2021 and also anticipates being able to introduce the change in retail premises in good time before the legislation takes effect in October 2021.