Allwyn UK responds as coroner urges Gamstop cover National Lottery draws

Allwyn UK has told SBC News that it is liaising with the Gambling Commission on player monitoring and responsible gambling measures, following calls for National Lottery draw games to be brought inside the Gamstop self-exclusion scheme.

The Times reported that Emma Whitting, Senior Coroner for Bedfordshire and Luton, wrote to the Commission recommending the change in a prevention of future deaths report tied to the death of Steve Goff, a father of two who took his own life after years of gambling addiction.

Online sports betting and casino operators must sign up to Gamstop as a condition of their licences. National Lottery instant win games already fall under the scheme, but draw-based games such as the main lottery draws are currently exempt.

Whiting's report noted that Goff spent some of his last remaining money on a National Lottery draw game shortly before his death. He had survived two previous suicide attempts and was facing homelessness at the time he died. He had also gambled on both licensed sites and unlicensed, offshore operators that sit outside Gamstop's reach despite sometimes displaying Gambling Commission branding they are not entitled to use.

Allwyn UK, which replaced Camelot as National Lottery operator in February 2024, extended condolences to Goff's family and said it was working with the regulator as it weighs up any changes to Gamstop's scope, which currently applies only to online instant win games.

Responsibility for any expansion of the scheme rests with the Gambling Commission, which is why the coroner addressed the recommendation directly to the regulator rather than to Allwyn.

A Commission spokesperson offered sympathies to Goff's family and said that, while National Lottery draw-based games are generally considered lower-risk relative to other gambling products, and players can already self-exclude from online National Lottery games directly with the operator, the regulator has been in talks with Gamstop and Allwyn since the inquest about what further consumer protections might be introduced.

The case reopens a long-running debate about the regulatory gap between the National Lottery and the rest of the gambling sector, including betting, racing and casino products. That gap is most visible in advertising rules: operators elsewhere in the industry face restrictions such as the CAP Code's limits on who can appear in marketing, and some in the sector have faced calls from a House of Lords committee for an outright advertising ban, while the National Lottery faces fewer such constraints and can market its games around the prospect of life-changing winnings.

Risk classification is the other part of the picture. The Gambling Commission treats National Lottery draws as low-risk compared with higher-risk products such as casino slots, a view supported by a 2023 report from Public Health England and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, which found the National Lottery was the gambling product least associated with harmful play.

That does not mean Allwyn operates without scrutiny. Acting Chief Executive Officer Sarah Gardner told Allwyn's Participant Protection Conference that the National Lottery's standing as a national institution means it must meet higher standards and accept greater scrutiny, while acknowledging that the risk of harm can never be fully eliminated.

The scale of the National Lottery's reach adds weight to that scrutiny. The Commission's Gambling Survey for Great Britain found 31% of British adults play the National Lottery, making it the most widely used form of gambling in the country.

Allwyn said that despite the lower risk profile of its games, it takes player protection seriously and has strengthened safeguards since taking over the licence.