Last year, the Lotteries Council commissioned nfpSynergy to write an independent report looking into the issues around problem gambling and responsible play.

It has long been understood that charity lotteries are a low-risk activity from a problem gambling point of view, but despite that it is worth remembering the importance of protecting potentially vulnerable players. Indeed, given the very nature of charity lotteries is to help society, you might say that it is in the DNA of charity lotteries to protect potentially vulnerable players, and this has been achieved in a variety of different ways. 

This report aims to bring together a series of evidence including the July 2020 House of Lords report on gambling harm and an Australia paper on gambling harm and lottery products. It looks at how charity lotteries should contribute to the funding of research, prevention and treatment for gambling harms and calls for a levy proportionate to the likely harm that any type of gambling causes. It's a comprehensive look at what causes problem gambling and shows that charity lotteries are low down on the list of causes.

However, it does recommend that those organisations that run charity lotteries should develop a code of best practice. The report suggests that a code of best practice for Charity Lottery and scratch-card operators would help ensure that all those organisations which ran charity lotteries and scratch-cards were nonetheless exploring all possible routes for minimising gambling harm among their players.