UK Lottery Commissions Underage Gambling Study

For many years, the UK National Lottery has been one of the most successful lotteries in Europe, attracting tens of millions of lottery players each week with its lucrative draws. For this reason, the UK National Lottery Commission has ordered a comprehensive study on underage gambling in the country.

According to reports, the UK National Lottery Commission retained Ipsos MORI, a leading research company, to investigate how many underage players play the National Lottery, focusing predominantly on children aged between 12 and 15. The last time a study was conducted on underage gambling was in 2006.

As such, the results of the new study will be compared with those recorded in the 2006 study to ascertain whether underage gambling has dropped, risen or remained the same. Ipsos MORI, with the assistance of Salford University, are expected to survey approximately 9,000 children between 12 and 15.

Said Ipsos MORI project manager, Alexandra Ziff, 'We are thrilled to be working with the National Lottery Commission to run the 2009 survey. We are confident that this, combined with the expertise of the Centre for the Study of Gambling, will contribute to a valuable new set of data concerning underage gambling.

'Of particular interest to us will be whether the rate of underage gambling in the United Kingdom continues to decline as observed in recent years, and whether there has been any change in the types of gambling young people are involved in, given the increasing popularity of the internet and other social media,' she said.

Said UK Lottery Commission spokesperson, Ben Haden, 'We want to make it is as tough as possible for young people to access National Lottery products and this research will help us to understand how well the current measures are working. It will also tell us if things have changed since the last major study in 2006.'

The reality is that despite the fact that National Lottery ticket retailers are prevented by law to sell lottery tickets to children under the age of 16, some underage children still manage to purchase lottery tickets. Interestingly, the 2006 study showed that majority of underage gambling took place on fruit machines (slots).