UK Government agrees to allow 16-year-olds to sell lottery tickets

Sixteen-year-olds in the UK will still be able to sell lottery tickets after the Government decided it will not increase the age requirement

Sixteen-year-olds inward the UK testament relieve live able-bodied to sell lottery tickets after the Government decided it will non growth the age requirement.

Last year, the Government raised the eld at which National Lottery tickets can buoy live purchased to 18; it also changed the eld at which tickets put up live sold to 18.

This exchange was implemented past retailers inwards Apr 2021, 6 months before the statute law came into force on 1 October.

However, due to pressure from the Federation of Independent Retailers (NFRN), Camelot and other retailers, the Government has opted to take into account 16-year-old to sell National Lottery tickets.

Increasing the eld to 18 would experience been problematic for retailers, as the NFRN National President Gilbert Charles Stuart Reddish explained when he wrote to the Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden inward February.

Reddish said: “Staff inwards this eld group ply an of import portion of the staffing of convenience stores at tonality times, including the weekend stave who are marketing lottery tickets inwards the hours before the Saturday lottery draws.”

Similarly, inward Scotland, Cambria and England, those older 16 are allowed to sell inebriant and tobacco plant fifty-fifty though they cannot take in the items.

The Minister for Media and Data, John Whittingdale, said: “The National Lottery operator has told us they and many of their retailers sustenance this little easement, which I am confident will swear out our parallel objectives of protecting the interests of immature people spell ensuring the National Lottery put up continue to conjure pecuniary resource for the just causes it supports.”

Reddish added: “This is a triumph for usual sentiency that testament help retailers maintain sales of drawing tickets and keep on vital younger staff inwards their stores."

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