Camelot has congratulated their National Lottery retailers for the third year in a row after final results for 2019 show that 91% of National Lottery retailers correctly asked for ID as proof of age on the first visit.
This high pass rate has been maintained for the last three years, and improved from the 2015 and 2016 performance by 5% and 2%.
Each year Camelot conducts 11,600 mystery shopper visits to National Lottery retailers to ensure that anyone under the age of 16 don’t play.
Camelot’s mystery shopping programme has been in place for over a decade. If a retailer fails a mystery shopping visit on three occasions, their National Lottery terminal will be suspended and is likely to be removed.
When mystery shopping visits kick off in 2020, Camelot will be reminding its retailers of their responsibilities in this area. A leaflet will be landing in all National Lottery retailers over the next few months with top tips on acceptable forms of identification, what to do if a customer appears to be underage or playing in an unhealthy way, and ways to ensure all staff are correctly trained.
Camelot’s Retail Director, Jenny Blogg, said:
“At this very difficult time, I’m absolutely delighted to be able to share the news that our National Lottery retail partners have retained their excellent mystery shopping pass rate for a third year running. Keeping players safe is central to how Camelot operates The National Lottery, and we have lots of processes in place to prevent underage play and also to support healthy play. Our 2019 results clearly show that these are working well, and have been for a number of years now. I’d like to personally thank each and every one of our retail partners for the part they have played in this.”
Camelot is continuing with the next phase of its ‘Supporting Healthy Play’ training programme throughout the year, to support retailers in feeling confident and equipped in this respect. The training educates retailers and offers tools for how to respond if a customer is asking for help with their play, or if shop staff are worried about a regular customer playing too much. It also provides retailers with the right resources to be able to offer customers information on GamCare – the leading provider of information, advice, support and free counselling for the prevention and treatment of problem gambling.
