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 potential effect of including (a) scratch cards and (b) instant win games in the National Lottery portfolio on (i) sales growth, (ii) returns to good causes and (iii) providing an entry point to problem gambling among players.

The decision by the operator to withdraw all £10 Interactive Instant Win Games in 2020, followed research, commissioned by the Gambling Commission, which found a correlation between players of Interactive Instant Win Games at the £10 price point and some problem gambling behaviours. The research did not show causation. The precautionary actions taken in this respect are indicative of the strong player protection policies in place on the National Lottery.

'Instants games’ have been part of the National Lottery portfolio for a majority of the time since the National Lottery was launched in 1994. Scratchcards were introduced in 1995 and online Interactive Instant Win Games in 2003. A broad portfolio ensures the National Lottery continues to appeal to a wide range of people and can provide substantial contributions for good causes every week. This has helped the National Lottery contribute over £1.2 billion to the UK wide response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

All games, including instants games, are licenced by the independent regulator, the Gambling Commission. In determining whether to licence games, the Commission will consider the potential impact on players and the player protection mechanisms which are in place to protect players from harm.

Evidence from the latest (2018) Health Survey for England shows that National Lottery games were associated with the lowest rates of problem gambling of all gambling products considered. Problem gambling rates for National Lottery draw-based games were 0.9% while the figure for Scratchcards was 1.4%.