Proposal to allow under 18s to sell lottery tickets welcomed by business leaders

The problem with under-age staff selling the tickets arose because new regulations have put up the age at which you can buy lottery tickets, a change will come into force later this year.

A government consultation sets out two options to deal with the issue, which are:

1. “Do nothing” – which means the minimum age to both buy and sell National Lottery products will increase as planned to 18 years old from 1 October
2. Introducing an approved sales system – this would mean that a National Lottery transaction has to be approved should the employee be aged 16 or 17 and this would be implemented by statutory legislation

ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “We have asked that with the change in age of play to 18, 16 to 17 year olds should continue to be able to sell National Lottery tickets.

“The government’s proposal for the introduction of an approved sales system to sell tickets takes us a long way towards this and essentially means that retailers need to have processes for approving these sales in the same way we do for alcohol.

“This will help customers get quick service, help retailers to sell National Lottery tickets, and crucially help younger colleagues to contribute to a wider range of activities in stores.”

The ACS estimates that there are about 4000 under-18s working in local shops nationwide.

The NFRN (National Federation of Retail Newsagents) has already asked the government to ensure that younger staff are able to sell lottery tickets even though they could not buy them.

In February NFRN national president Stuart Reddish wrote to culture secretary Oliver Dowden explaining the difficulties that retailers will face if sales assistants have to be over 18 to sell tickets.

Reddish said: “Staff in this age group provide an important part of the staffing of convenience stores at key times, including the weekend staff who are selling lottery tickets in the hours before the Saturday lottery draws.”