British Gambling Commission stresses National Lottery’s role in setting standard for safety
Gambling Commission chief executive Andrew Rhodes spoke at the Allwyn Participant Protection Conference.
UK.- The British Gambling Commission’s CEO Andrew Rhodes has reaffirmed the regulator’s commitment to ensuring safe play on National Lottery products. Although he said the lottery is less risky than other gambling verticals, he said it has a obligation to set the highest standard of player protection.
Speaking at the Allwyn Participant Protection Conference, Rhodes described the National Lottery as “national treasure”. However, he added that this status means that it will always come in for close scrutiny.
He said: “As I hope to make clear today, it’s just not possible for player protection to be an add-on to the National Lottery – it has to run through it like a stick of rock.”
Rhodes noted that in the last financial year the National Lottery raised over £1.8bn, while this year’s first quarter raised £485m – another annual uptick. In the Gambling Survey for Great Britain, the National Lottery remains clear out in front of other gambling products in terms of participation.
For the period of September 2024 to January 2025, 29 per cent of the over 5,000 respondents had bought a National Lottery draw ticket in the last 4 weeks, while National Lottery scratchcards had been bought by 11 per cent of respondents.
Rhodes recapped on how the lottery has grown from a single weekly draw when it was launched in 1994 to a multi-product offering with scratchcards and different games. He said the main attraction of the National Lottery remains the same as when it launched, but that the expansion has increased challenges.
“But those changes, when combined with the scale the National Lottery operates at, bring with them pressure,” Rhodes said. “Every added product, every increased opportunity for players also changes the challenges. It can, if change is careless increase risks and it can impact the relationship with players. This pressure is all the greater because of the added scrutiny the National Lottery attracts.
“Its scale, the numbers of people who are part of it, either as players, winners or recipients of funding, mean that the National Lottery is only ever one slip away from headlines. Recently Allwyn successfully managed a huge technical upgrade of both the retail technology and back office systems for the National Lottery. Its success is a good news story for all of us. But I know that there were those circling that project waiting to see if it went wrong. This scrutiny might not be fair but it is real and it is not going anywhere.”
Explaining why the National Lottery receives so much scrutiny he said: “Being put on a pedestal can be a tricky spot. And it inevitably means one wrong move can see you topple. The same is true of the National Lottery. National institutions are held to a higher standard than others. The National Lottery is held to a higher standard than other products and its reputation must be seen in this light. And it must be protected in this light.”
A ‘low-risk’ product
As for the level of risk of the National Lottery, he said: “The National Lottery, is one of the lowest risk products I and the Commission regulate. But that doesn’t mean participant protection can be an afterthought. Because there will always be a risk, however small. And that risk can and sadly sometimes does lead to terrible harms. So the National Lottery – especially given its status – must make every effort to counter that risk.”
Rhodes stressed the importance of Allwyn’s commitment to getting participant protection right through investment, working with partners, training staff and retailers.
