GamCare is the leading national provider of free information, advice and support for anyone affected by problem gambling. Allwyn achieved Advanced Level 2 of the Safer Gambling Standard for GamCare’s social responsibility quality standard for licensed gaming operators. It aims to increase overall standards of social responsibility practice across the industry, helping to make play safer for all.

This accreditation forms part of our wider Responsible Play strategy, ensuring National Lottery games are enjoyed safely both in retail and online.

Visit GamCare for more information about the Safer Gambling Standard

We design games that are both safe and fun to play. This is supported by tools and processes which closely monitor games as they are being developed, launched and played.

This helps us ensure we're not designing games which are high risk, and avoid games which are very quick to play, or stakes that are particularly high.

Playing in retail

We're committed to preventing underage play. If you believe National Lottery games are being sold to under 18s, please call 0345 301 6216.

Playing on our website

Our games are accessible only by users whose age and identity have been confirmed. We use an independent organisation to verify a player's age to ensure they are over 18.

You can ensure that young people don't have access to your National Lottery account by keeping your username and password confidential. There are also many third-party content filtering applications you can use to monitor or restrict internet use on your computer, such as:

• www.netnanny.com - Net Nanny filtering software, which protects children from viewing inappropriate web content
• www.27labs.com - CYBERsitter filtering software, which allows parents and guardians to add their own list of blocked sites to its filter

To keep players safe online, we use an in-house behavioural analytics model which identifies at-risk players, enabling us to support them through targeted interventions. Players who are identified as at-risk also have significantly lower deposit and play limits automatically applied to their account and are provided with advice on managing their play.

We also have measures to help prevent sales to under 18s and support healthy play in retail outlets, such as:

• Mandatory training for all new National Lottery retailers – covering healthy play, underage sales prevention, treatment referral and wider consumer protection issues.
• Regular communication with our retailers on how they can prevent underage play and support healthy play.
• Our underage mystery shopper programme – visits are carried out by young people aged over 18 who we reasonably expect to be challenged for ID. The programme is a tool used to monitor the compliance of our retailers as a result of the training and awareness we have in place to help prevent sales to underage players.
• Our healthy play mystery shopper programme which tests randomly selected retailers’ knowledge on healthy play and whether they are able to correctly signpost players to sources of support.

Players are limited to purchasing a maximum of 10 Scratchcards in one transaction. A transaction is a purchase (which includes the purchase of Scratchcards) made during a single visit to a store. This is part of our commitment to ensure that The National Lottery remains a trusted and safe environment for our players.

National Lottery games could be the perfect little gift, particularly for people who may be hard to buy for. When purchasing a National Lottery product (which might win a fantastic prize), it comes with the added bonus of raising money for National Lottery-funded projects.

When giving National Lottery draw tickets or Scratchcards as a gift, purchasers need to consider who they are gifting to and ensure they are always gifting responsibly – people need to be 18+ to buy, gift, receive and play – and to claim a prize.

Responsible gifting is in line with Allwyn’s commitment to protecting players and operating in a socially responsible way.

Our approach to gift responsibly means:

• National Lottery products are only to be gifted to those aged 18+. Our retail partners are trained not to allow under-18s to redeem prizes in store. They are also trained not to allow underage purchases, which retailers are tested on via our nationwide mystery shopping programme.
• Purchasers must not gift National Lottery products excessively to individuals, and should keep in mind that a maximum purchase limit of 10 Scratchcards per transaction applies in stores.
• Purchasers should aim not to gift National Lottery products to anyone who may find the gift inappropriate for any reason.