Supplementary memorandum submitted by
the Neighbourhood Lottery Alliance
The Neighbourhood Lottery Alliance (NLA) very
much welcomed the opportunity to provide oral evidence to your
Committee last week. We hope you found the session as useful as
we did.
I am taking this opportunity to write to you,
as there were a couple of areas that we felt we did not cover
comprehensively during the inquiry.
Firstly, we would like to state our position
regarding the potential for using Lottery terminals to administer
additional services, such as benefits. Whilst we would welcome
the opportunity to provide additional services and potentially
gain further commission, our primary concern is that Lottery terminals
should only be used for Lottery sales during peak hours.
Having to administer somebody's benefits whilst there is a large
queue building up on a Saturday evening would be a logistical
nightmare for retailers. Equally it would present the Lottery,
and hence retailers, in a bad light to players. In view of this,
we would recommend that all transactions using Lottery terminals
would need to include an element of commission to the retailer
concerned.
Secondly, we were keen to discuss the issue
of under-age purchases. As we commented in our written evidence,
we support the Health Select Committee's recommendation for a
Government-endorsed integrated proof-of-age scheme and would welcome
a similar such recommendation from your Committee. The NLA feels
very strongly about the need to avert under-age purchases and
believes such a scheme would contribute significantly to this
aim. We are also keen that, from the start of the new licence,
clear guidelines are in place for conducting all test purchasing
relating to the National Lottery, whether it is conducted by the
operator or by a local authority or other body. Test purchasing
should aim to improve retailing standards and to prevent unscrupulous
retailers from selling National Lottery products, rather than
simply punishing those who may make an honest mistake.
If you would like to receive any further information
from the NLA then please do not hesitate to contact us. Equally,
if you would like us to give further evidence once the next franchise
holder has been announced then we would be more than happy to
provide you with less speculative evidence.
November 2000
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